Hi Dee it is funny that you mention the use of cold frames. Sorry I don't have any experience but always have thought about building one. Just the other day, I was sorting through some old gardening magazines and happened on a Martha Stewart Gardening issue from 1996 (!) and there is a neat article on building your own cold frame etc. If you're interested I can send you the article or magazine. Just email me and I'd be happy to else it is going to get recycled soon...

Sue

Hi Sue. Thanks for the offer but I think I'll be okay with building one. I'm just not sure if I can place it on top of the asphalt.

Actually, I have some raised cinderblock beds that would probably lend themselves wonderfully to being used as cold frames, but I wanted something closer to the house. I'd have to have a *really* strong urge for a salad to run outside on some of the colder days, lol.

Maybe I'll try for more responses as the summer ends. I'm just so excited about trying this that I want answers NOW, lol! Thanks for taking the time to respond!

:)
Dee

I used cold frames this past year near Boston. Elliot Coleman's book was also my inspiration. My cold frames were 2 pine boxes higher in the back than the front (about 8 inches in the front and 12 in the back), with old windows as the lids, attached with sturdy hinges. I mulched heavily with straw and leaves around the outside of the frame, and around the plants inside once they came up enough. The plants that didn't get very tall (like mache) got a light layer of straw around them.

Last fall I got some good chard, lettuce and spinach, but it all took some pretty heavy frost damage when the temperatures got well below 20 degrees. The Kale that I planted last fall overwintered well, and is now almost ready to eat. In fact, I could have eaten it earlier if I didn't mind small leaves. The older leaves took some frost damage, where they were pressed up against the window.

The mache did EXCELLENTLY, and I had fresh lettuce all winter until the snow got so deep I didn't bother digging the cold frames out. When I went out there this spring after the thaw (late Feb.), there was the mache, ready to eat! And all the mache I reseeded in the middle of winter, thinking there was no way they were going to sprout? All sprouted and almost ready to eat. In fact, even the mache I planted outside at the end of fall "just to see" sprouted in early March and is growing away. There were only a few mache plants up last fall when the snow started falling.

I did not have such good success with the Arugula and other lettuces - they grew until it started being about 20 degrees, then froze. I was also trying to overwinter carrots, but I think they were too crowded and didn't turn out so well either. I just planted garlic outside in the ground, and it is now coming up.

That's about all I tried, because I'd never used cold frames before. I think next time I would make the cold frame a little taller in the back, because where the plants brushed against the glass, they got damaged. Also, the first set of windows I used was pretty old, and all the paint flaked off and got everywhere and then I had lead paranoia and had to get my soil tested. So I do not recommended using painted windows. I now have a set of old windows that has some kind of vinyl coating which seems to work better. In an ideal world, I'd use untreated cedar with plexiglass, and treat the outside with linseed oil. But cedar is EXPENSIVE, and used windows were free.

One big piece of advice is make sure the sunny spot is still sunny in winter, because one of my cold frames got almost NO sun in the winter, even though in summer it was full sun, and it didn't do as well. And make sure you actually know where South is, because mine were not pointed directly south, so the plants that were in the shade of the cold frame all the time died.

As for the asphalt, I don't know. I think part of the advantage of a cold frame is that the earth's temperature is pretty constant, so you can keep the ground from freezing so hard by insulating it. But with a sunny spot and asphalt... I don't know. I'd make the soil really thick, maybe build it up a foot, and insulate around the outside (I put bags of leaves I raked up in fall around mine), and make sure you have one of those automatic openers so the plants don't get scorched on an unusually sunny day. Or be prepared to run outside frequently, which is what I had to do.

I think all the effort was worth it, just to have fresh mache most of the winter!

Good luck!

Hi Nimowy,

Thanks for your post! I appreciate all that info. I'm surprised to hear that the seeds you sowed that late sprouted! And I kind of had to laugh about your "lead paranoia", lol. I never thought of that aspect about using old windows, which is what I was going to do (hoping to get some for free), but that is exactly how I would have reacted to paint flecks in my veggies too! Good thing to keep in mind for future reference!

You make a good point about the ground being insulated. I'm wavering between the idea that the asphalt will be colder than in-ground frames and the idea that it will be warmer because of the sun on it. I guess the only way to tell will be to just do it and see how it goes.

I've actually been leaning towards planting in large containers inside the frames. Because of the visible location, I think I'd like to wait as long as possible to put the cold frames up (this area usually has flowers in containers) and so if I start the seeds in containers earlier, I can move the containers and build the cold frames around them. I'm thinking of going with something quite deep, 18 to 24 inches, since I want to grow some root vegetables, and to take into consideration the headroom up to the glass, as you pointed out.

Boy, this sure would be a heck of a lot easier if I could hit a nail with a hammer, lol. I am not the least bit handy, which is why I'm trying to start early in thinking of how to go about all this.

Thanks for your input!
:)
Dee