Great Garden Experiment 2011 – The Cold Frame!

This post is one in a series that asks the question, To CSA or not to CSA… For the original post and a little more info please read here.

Gardener’s log, Star date 2011.4.12; I fear that in my zeal to incorporate edibles back into our lives, hubris may have gotten the best of me. The crew however remains upbeat and after a beautiful afternoon, we have managed to get all of our seeds started. My hope is that we are able to bring our bounty to harvest before being assimilated by the Weed. Scott out.

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How often does this happen in our lives, that we bite off more then we can chew? Unfortunately for me it forms the chorus of my life’s song, but fortunately, I do love to putter round the garden.

We have received most of our seed order(s) and are only now waiting on seed potatoes that will ship mid April, and despite the busyness of the season and working around strangely timed rain events, we were able this past weekend to start the early seeds  and get them into a very long cold frame.

All planted!

Tucked in and ready to grow!

Luckily we had enough scrap wood and a couple of sheets of plywood to build the cold frame, and I even had a roll of felt paper (for roofing) to line the sides. The dark material will absorb heat and help keep the flats warmer at night. In a few weeks when nighttime temperatures have safely risen, we’ll move the flats and the cold frame and replace it with raised beds. The soil here is horrible, but it’s the sunniest spot in the yard.

We are late in getting the early direct sow vegetables into the ground, no worries though as we have started these late before and somehow they always manage to provide. There is much to prepare this year as we have not had a garden in a few years and will need to expand what once sufficed for square footage. We also will need to gather up materials for trellises, potato towers, raised beds and stakes. I’ll be calling on a few friends in the building industry for lumber scraps to keep the costs under control and using the vast array of “stuff” I have gathered myself, of which there is a lot! (I am a New England Yankee after all).

Now, in case you’re wondering what we’ll be growing this year, I have prepared the following list! I’ll update you on the cost of our project in a later post, and hopefully by then, we’ll have the rest of the seeds in the ground.

A comprehensive if overwhelming list, no?

 

That’s it for now, but I’d love to hear how your garden is coming along. Please leave a comment!

 

Gardener’s log supplemental; I have made my report to the Federation, but I sense a lack of confidence in our mission. In the coming weeks it will be imperative to stay focused on the task at hand, and work to bolster the crew’s spirits. I hope I am not (as Captain Ahab once did) chasing my white whale. Scott Out!