After spending last winter playing endless games of hide-and-seek with our jerry cans and propane canisters and other necessities, games we only won after a fair amount of wrestling snow and battling giant icicles, The Native did a wondrous thing this autumn and built an exterior shelf the length of our cramper large enough to hold all of these things. When most of your belongings are outside, you quickly learn that keeping them up off the ground goes a long way in maintaining a vestige of sanity.
A month or so ago, while trawling the internet for assurance or evidence of winter’s end, I found a blogh posting about turning an outdoor table into a cold frame, and something immediately happened to the wind turbine in my head to get the lightbulb going. I managed to spit out a handful of random words seemingly about the shelf and my need for a cold frame, and the next thing we knew, The Native had a plan. A trip to Home Depot and an afternoon later, and, dear reader(s), look what I have:
If there was ever such a thing as Coldframe Porn, this is that. And this is why one should never attempt what I’m attempting without a Native of his or her own. Because had this been my project, there would be no nice hinges at the top allowing one to easily access the interior. And it wouldn’t be sturdy clear vinyl covering, nor black heat-absorbent weed cloth so that my inevitable overwatering can seep through. In fact, had I made it, with saranwrap and black garbage bags, I probably wouldn’t be able to get it all to stay together, but am so obdurately determined to see through an idea that I’d have stood holding one end up until all risk of frost had passed. That would be a lot of standing and I’d complain deeply about it.
Don’t worry. We haven’t even started making our way down my list of complaint.
I haven’t dared to set anything out here yet, because I’m not sure how hot it gets in there, and because the temperature out of there hasn’t really deigned to make its way above freezing, but given my tendency to use any available windowsill space with elaborate peat pot pyramids, and my utter and almost petulant determination to grow melons in a climate where I’m laughed at for even thinking about melons, this excites me plenty.
Years ago, I had big plans for putting in a coldframe, but somehow flowerbeds snuck in where I’d wanted to put it. I may do some shifting this (what we laughingly call) summer to move the flowers out of my Perfect Spot for a Coldframe. (Of course, I said that last year. And the year before…)
I think, even with a foot of soft white shit on the way, that lettuces can be grown in a cold frame very early, so that an early May salad need not come from California or Mexico, or even the greenhouse hydroponic clone center down the road.