Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Cold Frames

Mason Jar Cloques'...not so good.
Sampson being Solar Kitty.
   









     Spring is nipping at our heels, but Winter seems to be  hanging on with the occasional frost.  I'm really itching to get things in the ground and start the garden, but the potential for frost makes me weary.  I've read about cold frames and French Cloques', but never tried them.  After I potted up several of my tomato seedlings, I had a few that we didn't have pots for, so I figured I'd plant them in the garden, and throw an overturned mason jar over them.  Instant Cloque', right, wrong.  They quickly overheated and wilted.  I suppose that's why the french had an army of laborers to go out and prop open the cloques' to allow air, and they were much bigger than my mason jars.  Oh well, live and learn.
Probably won't last the season.  It
has 8 inch "stake" legs, so it really
bites the ground when you push it down

The sides open to allow air and
work/weeding.

  So while mom was here, I was piddling out in the yard, that's what I call it when I want to be outside, but don't really have anything, or know what to do.  I had this old painters drop cloth, the clear plastic kind, and a bunch of furring strips in shed.  So out came the hand saw, and screwdriver. About 2 hours later, I had a quasi green house/cold frame/waste of time maybe.  It's about 4 feet square and maybe 2 feet high.  It's ugly, I already know what I'd do differently if I made another, but it really warms the soil up.  I've got some soy beans and purple runners in there right now, still waiting to sprout, but hopefully it will let them get going, with no danger from frost, and be established when the warmer weather comes.  As I was standing around in the garden waiting for something to do to speak at me, I remembered I had a ton, literally a ton, of cinderblocks behind the shed, from when the landlord build the house foundation.  So I lugged about 10 into the garden and made a big old square with them, then laid a window I found on the side of the road across the top.  I didn't dig up the grass, or even put dirt in it, I'm thinking of using it when it's time to harden off the seedlings before they go in the ground.  I don't know, it stays plenty warm in there, maybe we'll put dirt in it anyway and keep lettuce there in the winter.
Look how good that dirt looks...

Adds about a 10-15 degree advantage over
the outside air temp.
I tell you though, this warm weather is not only confusing the mosquitoes and other bugs, we've had a baby fly explosion around the yard, but it's got me confused too.  I just want to start growing things.  Everyday the weather is nice, I let the girls out and we sit in the garden, which is still just dirt, and pick weeds, turn the soil, they eat worms, I get the weeds out.  There isn't much more to do, until that Last Frost Date has come.  Oh I am fermenting some wheat and chicken feed to attract some Black Soldier Flies.  That's another project, kind of gross, but their larva are super composters, like a colony that will fit in a 5 gallon bucket will handle up to about 3 pounds of kitchen waste a day.  That's some composting.  Plus the larvae will "self harvest" and we can feed them to the girls, like chicken crack.  But that's another project, another day, another blog post.

Till next time.........

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