Took this video out in our goat shed in our backyard the other day.
Enjoy!
Archive for April, 2009
Cold frames, in the cold rain
On April - 6 - 2009
.
Wow, lets talk about hardy plants, yikes! I made or rather, I jury rigged, a cold frame on the raised bed that will hold brassicas (early cabbage, kale, and bok choy) to see if I could get them out there before our last hard frost date of May 15th.
I bought some 4 mil clear plastic and 2 ten foot 1.5 inch diameter plastic pipe. We cut the pipes in half to make 4 five foot lengths for support, in theory that is.
This thickness is strong enough to deal with the elements but clear enough to get solar gain.
I stuck the 5 foot length pipes into the bed, as you see below.
And then KD, seen above, and I made holes for the seedlings (I peeled off the peat pots when planting)
And then, using duct tape and varying levels of angry kevetching not rated for young ears, I draped the pipes with plastic.
One important part of this plastic is to keep the darn chickens who are still free ranging off my plants. As I was planting these seedlings, I turned my back for a few moments and the darn rooster jumped right up and ate 5 bok choys!
As soon as I finished enclosing this bean trellis with plastic and stepped back, that evil rooster jumped right up and proceeded to menace my cold frame. He very deliberately worked hard to find a way in.
I hope you can see him in the photo above. I also have a few other shots below.
After that beautiful day when I built the cold frame, it has been raining and blowing non-stop. Those poor little seedlings have been subjected to sub-32 weather at night and direct weather exposure because the high winds continue to blow everything off the raised beds! This includes having the plastic directly ON the seedlings with a load of icy cold water pooled above them.
I figured I had lost these poor seedlings but today I ran out in the rain and looked and saw that they had already grown new leaves! Crazy things!
I guess they like this sort of weather (I know they are cold hardy but this is just crazy)
I am very thankful for their resilience and I am looking forward to some VERY hardy cabbages, kale, and bok choy!
My next project is broadcasting carrot seed (with sand) and also getting some broccoli going out there.
