Cold FramesPhotos & Story By Marilynn Freeman March 2007 My heartfelt thanks to Anaia Song, Basira Nickle and Wendy Schumann for their guidance, inspiration, vast knowledge and willingness to share what they know. I highly recommend the older edition (1981) of Mel Bartholomew's book, Square Foot Gardening. The photos were taken in late January or early February. Building The Container Supplies: The size of my garden is 3 feet by 8 feet. The bed is made of 1"x12" lumber that was wrapped in black plastic that landscapers use. The hope was that the plastic would not deteriorate in the sun and would protect the wood from rotting. Not having the proper tools to be a carpenter, I cut 2x4's twelve inches long and screwed the sides to them with screws. The 2x4's are wrapped in black plastic as well. The hoops are one inch PVC that I bought from the Re-Store. They are eight feet long and are simply pushed into the soil, inside the box. The one that runs across the top is 10 feet long, so I have a one-foot over-hang on each end of the box. I used string and thumbtacks to mark off the square feet. The garden was started in November, so I covered it with a sheet of clear bubble wrap (that I found as "road kill). Knowing that the bubble wrap was not UV protected, I covered it with plastic that is used for greenhouses that can withstand sunlight. I held the plastic in place with 7' T-stakes on the sides. The ends were overlapped and held in place with a large rock. All of this seemed to hold up through winds and snow. The entire garden was fenced with 4' chicken wire that I fastened to the T-stakes with plastic electrical connectors. They don't stand up to the sunlight, but all of this is temporary. The Soil The soil was an equal mixture of "topsoil" from Rockin' R, peat moss and vermiculite. There was much discussion among the gardeners regarding the use of peat moss as it is a non-renewable product. (Coir from coconut shells appears to be a wiser choice, but it must be shipped from Indonesia, which makes it not quite so "green".) It took one huge bag of vermiculate (can't find the size), 5.5 cu. ft. bag of peat moss, topsoil plus about 4 buckets of dry manure to fill the box. All of this was mixed thoroughly and watered. Amendments I used a 3-gallon bucket to make the following mixture. To two dry gallons of Yum-Yum® mix, I added 1 cup each of sulfur, bone meal and blood meal. Once this was mixed thoroughly, I added about 2 cups of this mixture to the soil. This was mixed into the soil. Planting I planted the garden on November 19 and was eating greens by mid-December. Here's the lay-out of the garden and the number of plants per square foot:
There were a few problems with this layout. The Swiss Chard grew very well and since it was on the outside row, the leaves burned (from cold) when they touched the plastic. Their big leaves also covered a couple of the arugula plants, so their growth was retarded. The turnips didn't like their spot (which was probably one of the coldest). By March 8, the turnips were less than 2" tall. The turnips took off when the temperatures started warming up. The radishes were harvested on 2/28. The lettuces, roquette, arugula and Lamb's quarters produced beginning in February. Even in the single-digit temperatures, everything did fine, except for some of the chard leaves. The garden remained covered through most of February. In late February, I removed the bubble-wrap and just used the single layer of plastic to cover the hoops. The garden was uncovered completely during most warm days of late February and March, and covered at night. These weeks were the hey-day of the harvest. I had greens, greens and more greens. I fed lots of people great salads and loved it!! The roquette, arugula and broccoli started bolting mid-March when the days began to be in the mid-70°s. I am still able to harvest everything else and this is written on March 30. The carrots are now being consumed. Peas were planted March 9 where the radishes were and are now up about an inch. Fertilizing Growing Plants: 1. When I thawed any beef, I saved the blood and added it to water in my watering can. This "blood juice" was very diluted but seemed to work quite well. 2. Compost tea from the indoor compost buckets. This tea comes from the breakdown of the composted materials. I use Bokashi to compost inside during the winter. Bokashi is made from EM™, a microorganism product that is cultured from molasses and water in a base of wheat bran. 3. I used fish emulsion once, but there is some controversy over using this as well if you choose to be a vegan. (Obviously from #1, you can see that I am not.) 4. When I re-plant a square, I mix in about a tablespoon of the amended Yum-Yum® mix (See "Amendments") to the square. Pests: The only "pests" I have encountered so far was an infestation of teeny, tiny flies. I had them inside with my houseplants as well. Anaia Song suggested that diatomaceous earth spread on the soil every two weeks and after each watering would take care of the problem. She was right - in a month I was fly free! # # # Return to Top ------- Return to Home Page |