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runningtrails_gw

my ground has thawed!

runningtrails
15 years ago

Well, some of it, anyway. The veggies gardens are still half covered with snow but it's dissappearing daily. Here's what I did yesterday:

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NO! It's not a grave!

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It's for my coldframe.

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This is the railing where I'm going to grow luffahs and decorative gourds.

Does anyone else up here in the cold north have a cold frame? When do you start to put tender things in it?

Comments (10)

  • bill7
    15 years ago

    That looks interesting, but not sure what it is for! I am up here in the cold North. I do know that!

  • nelda1234
    15 years ago

    Our ground has thawed and it has been fairly nice and a few days up to 71F - I thought Spring is coming, Spring is coming - So I till the garden 3 times and put lime on it and was just going crazy! Now? it has been in the 30's and they are saying SNOW for tomorrow!! YIKES!

    OK--Never had cold storage, so you are going to have to explain! The Grave looking thing, is that where you will put the frame - did you just dig that hole recently or is that a spot that you use all the time? The frame looks new so I'm pretty sure it has not been buried there all winter - are those rocks? and what do you use them for? I like the idea, how much can you put in one cold storage unit and for how long?

  • runningtrails
    Original Author
    15 years ago

    LOL! The rocks were in the ground. They're not part of the coldframe. I dug them out on Friday when I dug the hole for the cold frame. Here it is finished but without the glass

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    It's used just like a little greenhouse. It's burried for insulation and the lid is double paned glass. I can put stuff in it to grow now, well as soon as I get the lid attached with hinges at the back. Google "coldframe" and you'll get lots of info and pics. Some people put heating cables in them and grow veggies all year. You can also keep it warm all year with a manure compost going underneat the pots. I'm just using it to extend my growing season spring and fall.

    I'm going to use the rocks here:

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    I did that today. If it doesn't rain, I'll finish it tomorrow. Man, am I stiff and sore! I have to roll those great big rocks by the coldframe around to the front to put in the fieldstone path.

  • dethride
    15 years ago

    I've got two coldframes I built to the size of a sliding patio door. Yours looks to be the same? After attaching foam board insulation to the inside walls and painting them white, I rigged up a solar opener, but it had only a 15 lb. opening force and the door was a lot heavier. I attached an angle iron frame hanging off the hinged side and kept loading old cast iron window weights on the frame until it just started to open. I removed one weight and now, when the sun heats up the inside - voil! - the opener pushes the door open. No baked veggies!

    Herbert

  • runningtrails
    Original Author
    15 years ago

    Wow, that's really fancy, Herbert! Mine's just a plain cold frame that I have to open by hand. It is a sliding patio door. I have six of them I collected last year with the idea of putting in six cold frames. lol! When I thought I'd have time to do that is beyond me! I'm lucky to have gotten this one in.

    Did the insulation and white colour make a big difference? I do have some pink board insulation I use to pack paintings in to mail. I could install that on the inside and paint it white. What do you put in yours and how early?

    Most of what I'm putting in there will be luffahs, peppers and tomatoes that I'm starting early form seed and maybe sweet potatoes. I'm rooting a couple of sweet potatoes for slips now.

    I planted 20 peat pots of broccoli for the window sill today and have 20 peat pots of kholrabi already sprouted! These can go out in the garden next month. Most of the other stuff will have to wait in the cold frame for the first week of June.

    I want to put another shelf in the seed window tomorrow. Lots of plans and a whole box of seeds to plant!

    I think the luffas and gourds will look great covering the railing behind the cold frame!

  • runningtrails
    Original Author
    15 years ago

    Well, we've got snow on the ground this morning and rain all afternoon yesterday so I didn't get any more work done outside. Very dissappointing! Oh well, I was too tired after all that rocking and digging to do much hard work yesterday anyway.

    I did manage to make two trips to the rock pile with the wheel barrow, then I had to come inside. I have a source for rocks but it's about an acre away from the house. It's so time consuming to cart those rocks to the path. My old rickety wheel barrow will only carry about 2.5' worth at a time. (Not to mention that I'm old and rickety too.) WIsh I had a bucket on my tractor!

  • nelda1234
    15 years ago

    Ahhh I am now enlightened - Thank you very much - when I first saw the picture I thought to myself Oh No! What has her DH Done! Something really Bad LOL, LOL. But then you said it was not a "Grave", I was much relieved!! I can't believe you dug up all those big rocks in that small space, I would love to have them!! :) You wish you had a bucket on your tractor and I just wish I had a tractor! :)

    Everything I do I have to do with a shovel or tiller.

  • runningtrails
    Original Author
    15 years ago

    I got hubby to remove those rocks for me, the few I couldn't roll out after digging anyway. I am thrilled to have them for the landscaping, though! I used my car trunk for rocks before I had a truck. Truck is broke right now and I'm tempted to do that again...

    I get a lot of big rocks every time I dig anything. I am glad to find them, but they do add quite a bit to the work of digging.

  • msjay2u
    15 years ago

    did hauling the rocks and the pallets and the all the other stuff you pack in there kill your transmission?

  • runningtrails
    Original Author
    14 years ago

    Do you mean in the truck that is now broken? No, it needs a new water pump. It has upgraded springs, so it's really a 3/4 ton.

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