Any of the leafy greens - lettuce, kale, chard, spinach, etc. since they are cold tolerant. As well as some of the cole crops - broccoli, cabbage, etc. Success will all depend on having a proper venting system and in your zone, a source of heat at times to keep things from freezing.

Later in the year, closer to spring, you can also start vegetable transplants for those crops that will be transplanted to the garden in the spring and early summer.

Dave

What date are you thinking of sowing? Will you have any mechanism to monitor temperature?

Without supplemental light - most plants won't grow much until daylight is 10 hours or more per day. For me, that's Febuary 1st. So I'm not bothering till then for anything. Even at ideal temps, they just wont grow.

Check your area here:

http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/sunrise.html

After having enough hours of light per day, is germination temp if you are direct seeding into the coldframe.

According to my john jeavons "how to grow more vegetables" the absolutest lowest temp for germination is

35 for lettuce, onion, parsnip and spinach, those optimal ranges for germination are typically in the 40-60 degree area.

40 for beet cabbage carrot cauliflower parsley pea radish and turnip. Again - optimal ranges are higher, generally starting around 50.

but if you can, I would certainly build and place the cold frame as soon possible. It will start to heat up the soil within it, while you wait for the magic 10 hours of daylight to begin..

:)

sounds good I will get building frames tommorrow I have alot of scrap lumber and windows to use up. It looks like feb 6th would be my day

I set up a basic strawbale frame with plexiglass and it melted the snow and warmed about the top 1 1/2 inch soil up but it is still frozen below that do I need to wait untill the ground is totally thawed to plant this is my first time I plan on spinach arugla and the other hardy greens and in a few weeks setting my trays of brocali and cabbage out in a frame to grow. Do you direct sow your beets and swiss chard? thanks

Totally thawed, no but you'll need more than 1 1/2". Wait a bit or heat the soil more. Direct sow beets and chard? Yes, especially beets. Like most root crops, they don't tolerate transplanting at all well.

Dave