Tag Archives: Cold Frame

Cold Frame Update and Seedling Surprise

The second automatic vent I ordered came a couple of weeks ago. It has been so wet and cold since then I didn’t get it installed. I noticed this morning that the other lid with the autovent already installed was open a few inches so I decided to take advantage of today and get the other one installed. It went on without a hitch.

The cold frame still had some lettuce & radishes that I had planted last fall. The radishes were history. The lettuce looked good but a taste test told me it was too bitter to fool with. Perhaps it was planted too early last fall. We had a very warm winter and it may have gotten too mature before slowing down for the winter. I pulled what was in there and reseeded with lettuce, radishes and spinach. I tried to rotate but its hard when you are dealing with a little less than 32 ft sq.

I did notice that some of the flats I had seeded late this winter have sprouted. Unfortunately a couple of weeks ago I forgot to lock down the lid without the auto-opener and a wind blew it open. Some of the tags I had on the flats identifying what was what blew off. Now its seedling surprise with some of them. I’m sure I’ll be able to figure them out once they get some size on them.

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Sowing Perennials and My Cat’s NDE or How Blogging Saved my Cat

 

Not much has been going on around here garden-wise as is evidenced by the post drought and snow cover. That is slowly starting to change though. The past couple of weekends I have been seeding flats with some perennial flowers, herbs etc. Johnny Jump Ups, Baby’s Breath, Rudbeckia, Butterfly Bush, White Coneflower, Bellflower, Roman Chamomile, Green Onions and about half a dozen others I can’t remember right now. Nothing fancy but something I’ve really never tried before.

seedflats-cf

After seeding a flat I piled some snow on it to give it a slow watering as the snow melted. I placed the flats in the cold frame to give them a boost on spring. For a test I seeded some basil too. I am interested to see if it comes up at all, comes up too early and dies or waits to come up when conditions are right. I laid a piece of plastic over the flats as I didn’t have any glass and trying to get plastic wrap from the kitchen to cooperate ended up with a pile of plastic wrap on the ground next to the cold frame and still uncovered flats. The plastic will help conserve water. I locked the one frame without the automatic opener to keep the wind from blowing it open which has happened several times this winter.

coldframe-snow

Max usually follows me to the garden but I had a lot on my mind this morning as I returned from the coldframe and didn’t notice her running past as I walked. I spent the next 20 minutes or so puttering around the back porch and noticed that she wasn’t underfoot then either but sometimes she is off doing her own thing so I didn’t think too much about it. I decided to blog my morning and thought it would be good to include some photos. I picked up the digital and headed back outside. Imagine my shock when I opened the cold frame and saw her face sitting there looking back at me. I am soooo glad I decided to blog today. It ened up saving my cat. I had not planned to even open the cold frame till next weekend and I am sure she wouldn’t have lasted that long. She must have snuck in and ran to the uncovered side while I had my back turned. With the snow cover on the lights/lids I wouldn’t have noticed her unless she came over to the side I was working on. I can’t even image walking out there next weekend and finding her.