The Many Benefits of Using a Cold Frame

We’ve written about using a cold frame to harvest salad greens all winter. (To read these posts click on “Cold Frame” in the righthand column). The seeds for these were planted in late summer and early fall here in Maine, to get enough growth before winter sets in. Once the weather gets too cold, the plants stop growing and then are protected in their glassed-over space, bright green and ready for picking as needed. Having fresh greens for winter salads is the primary use of our cold frames. But, there's more to the cold frame story.

A side benefit helps us out now. Spinach was a winter crop that was completely harvested for salads (and we made a spinach lasagna too). Lettuce and claytonia seeds were then put into the empty spaces. A planting of lettuce was used up in January, and mache seeds took its place. The seeds sprouted into tiny plants. When the days got longer and the sun stronger, they started growing.

It’s now April and there's still snow on our vegetable beds. Our seed orders are getting here and we're thinking about summer gardening. Way before we can get our hands into the fresh spring dirt, our cold frames hold our spring salads. 

The lettuce seeds were thickly sown and the thinnings are going into salads. A few mache plants are nearly their full height of 2-1/2 inches, one of two patches of Claytonia is fully mature, and there are a few spinach plants left over from the fall planting. Some skinny scallions in the back of the cold frame are beginning to fill out. The little plants really get going this time of year, and having fresh greens for spring salads is greatly appreciated. 

And now, after winter harvest followed by spring harvest is yet another use for the cold frames. As the spring greens are harvested and spaces open up,  seeds are started for the summer garden. Instead of seed starter trays taking up space inside the house it’s so much simpler to start them outdoors in the cold frames. Last year we started cabbage this way, transplanting the plants to one of our raised beds. We're still eating sauerkraut from that planting and are getting ready to do it again this year. 

The cold frames are truly year-round free-energy growing spaces. -G.H.