So Saturday I found these four patio doors in the alley behind the house. Score! I’m going to build some angled wood boxes to make into cold frames. Then in the late fall/early spring, I can set the cold frames down on the existing garden frames (see second photo), to either keep plants alive a bit longer through the early winter, or to warm up the soil for seedlings in early spring. I figure the four doors will make two 4’x4’ cold frames, so I can either cover two 4x4 herb garden beds, or one 4x8 veggie bed.
To do:
- Decide how far above the ground I want the glass to be. Too low and I couldn’t put the cold frames over large plants. Too high and I might lose the heat it traps. Hmm. Perhaps make them low to start, but with the option of adding another board to raise the frames up another 4 or 6 inches. I could do this by drilling holes and using short (4”) pieces of rebar to end-join the additional pieces…
- Measure the garden frames and cut the cold frames wood. Glue and screw it together. I’ve got exterior screws and oil stain for making the chicken coop that will preserve it, unless I wanted to paint it some nice color; give the garden a bit of color in the winter…
- Trim the glass doors down to fit the cold frames and around the edges, to save weight.
- Attach the glass doors to the frames with hinges. Attach handles so we can lift the glass doors.
- Design a way to prop the glass doors open a bit (maybe just a hole in the doors to hold a stick or something) for when the weather warms up. It can easily get too hot inside and kill any delicate seedlings.
- Buy and stick small cheapie thermometers inside the frames, positioned so we can see them easily. When it gets hot outside, we’ll prop open the glass tops.
- Perhaps cut out some handles in the frames, or attach handles, so that when we need to move the cold frames, we can easily lift and carry them.
- I should probably put a metal loop or something attached to the frame, through which I can pound a rebar stake into the garden dirt, to keep the frame from shifting on top of the garden bed frame. The frames should be pretty heavy, especially with the glass doors, but it would be a good idea to secure them anyway.
- Do people put insulation inside cold frames? Or paint the inside black? Or line it with foil or something to increase the heat? I’d never intended to build cold frames, so I never bothered reading up on them. But with these doors falling into my lap, I thought it would be a good addition to the gardening options. Research will need to be done.
