Cold Frames, Horse Manure and Salsify

Last week we finally got the soil into our first ever cold frame and planted several things. Not all the plants fit into that frame. So this week we built a second one. There's nothing like plants that need a home to motivate a gardener to work. It was either build a home for them or throw them out. There's no way we're throwing them out! Carrots and salsify (a white root vegetable) have been growing under lights inside for weeks. They've been too much work to just throw out. We now have a total of about 40 square feet of garden space in cold frames, that should be enough space for all our plants.

I'm really pleased because we made them of almost 100% recycled material -scrap wood, throw away window pains, free horse manure and composted yard waste. We spent a grand total of $50.00 to complete them!

You can see how we pieced the scrap wood together. (Both frames are pictured.)

Our soil concoction for the first frame is unusual (pictured below). We layered 2 feet of fresh horse manure, 6 inches of sand and then 6 inches of "potting soil" (which is essentially composted yard waste) into the frame.  We're hoping the manure will get hot as is composts and warm the frame during the coming cold months. It's an idea Belle read about in one of her gazillion library books that pass through here. We also added a light to the frame that runs for about 3 hours a day just before sunrise. Thanks Robin for that suggestion. Our plants are growing! 

The horse farm

Hot manure

2 feet of hot manure in the bottom of the frame.

6 inches of sand to keep the germs away from our veggies.

Red leaf lettuces were begun under lights inside the house,

along with salsify, beets, one cabbage and a light.