Fifty year old Windows, 2 x 2s from the 1930s, boards, screws, nails -- instead of throwing them away during our remodeling surge, they were stacked in the backyard under a tarp, waiting for a new life as something useful.
Before making plans and drawings, we needed - in the best tradition of modern marketeers - a name for the project and came up with TARdis (short for Total Access Remodeling dis).
dis?
A nod to the local German-English tradition.
This weekend, the tomato plants, the lettuce and several cuttings from a doomed red grape vine that lives a few towns over moved into the TARdis and promptly doubled in volume in two days. The sides and the back of the cold frame are made of old boards and beams, the top consists of two windows side by side. In meters, its surface is around 1.5 by 1.2, large enough for starting veggies before moving the youngsters into the regular outside beds.
Many of our garden veggies need extra protection from occasional hard freezes until about the end of May, until after the "frosty saints". It is hard to imagine 32 F/0 C temperatures in late May after a week of daytime highs in the low 70s, but saints and the farmers almanac do not lie!
The second major benefit of a cold frame in addition to cozy temperatures is keeping the rugged German snails out. German snails are very pretty, with multi-colored thick shells and an attraction to both veggies and beer.
Since TheEditor doesn't do beer, the snails go after the vegetables and the cold frame is what keeps the starts safe from them.
Soon the cold frame will get a coat of primer and a top coat of blue paint, the tint of our favorite television "blue police box".
No comments:
Post a Comment