What the heck would we do with such a fantastic find?? Make a cold frame box, of course! So Josh, being quite resourceful, found all the materials needed around the property and barn- good for the environment and good for our pockets!After a little construction in the driveway, we moved it to it's permanent home- lining the back edge of the garden. After a long and hard deliberation, we decided on planting loose 'rocky top' and endive lettuce, broccoli raab, radishes, carrots and spinach. Having these plants inside the cold frame will allow for warmer temperatures through the beginning colder months of spring. This way, we are able to increase the length of our season even more.
Around the corner, in our raised beds, we decided to start 2 of our cold weather lettuce varieties (arugula and mesclun mix), pak choi, kale and another variety of radishes. In past years we have had a BIG problem with rabbits slipping through the fence. But this year, we came prepared...We fully lined the inside with poultry fencing and just to be sure no burrowing occurs, buried the fence 6 inches down. Sorry...this is a no rabbit zone...
Last year, being our first year experimenting with our expanded garden space, we weren't that concerned with aesthetics and as the season wore on, our $$ supply dwindled...So, starting anew this season, we are ready and willing to spend, spend, spend! (within our little, tiny budget, of course) Josh surrounded the entire garden with hemlock branches (last year we went about half-way around) from an old tree we took down. These will serve as our fence posts. Plus, taking NO chances, we also lined and buried this garden with poultry fencing, we're currently about half-way done this so far- but I guess I'm being optimistic about finishing that...update to come...
Inside we are in full swing. We have been planting since the first week of March and many of our plants are sprouting, growing and even needing to be transplanted into larger containers. Yippee!!
A few weeks ago we planted our peppers and tomatoes, celery, watermelon, and a few herbs. Earlier in the week we planted some brassicas and lettuce varieties. Needless to say, we are well on our way to an awesome season.
Lauren, I just showed the blog with Grandmom. She is the one who started me in gardening. Dan's parents are the ones who encouraged organics (they only used this for all of their gardening;Dan's mom worked for Mother Earth news). GrandMom loves the cold frame and really smiled with the picture of Josh doing the starter plants ;)
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