October 15th is the average date of the first Fall frost for most of middle Tennessee. Many of you may have
already had light frost at your home this week. It’s a great time to extend the growing season for some cool-season crops by using a Cold Frame.

So, what is a Cold Frame?… you might think of it as a tiny greenhouse; except that you don’t walk inside it – a cold frame is typically only a couple of feet high – and it does not have a secondary heat source (other than sunshine). By collecting heat from the sun and offering shelter from frost and drying winter winds, a cold frame can give you the opportunity to harvest some fresh produce throughout the winter.

Leafy greens such as lettuce and spinach are among my favorite crops for the cold frame. You may also want to try beets, carrots, and other veggies that thrive in cooler weather. There’s nothing quite like harvesting a fresh garden salad in January!

Essentially, a cold frame is nothing more than a box with a clear or translucent lid. You might even be able to construct one with salvaged items, at little or no expense. Here are a few tips that come to mind from my own cold frame experiments:
1. Find the top first. Old windows and glass doors are popular items to top off a cold frame. But, whatever
you use, it can save a lot of hassle if you pick a material or item(s) for the top first, and then construct the “box” to provide the correct size and support for the top.
* be sure to take appropriate safety measures when using or working with glass.
2. Angle southward. Angle the top so it can more easily shed rain and snow. Also, orient your cold frame with the angled top facing south, to collect as much sunshine as possible.
3. Due to its natural rot –resistant properties, Cedar is a nice wood to use for cold frame construction. If you
don’t have access to some cedar boards, even plain pine will usually last a few years. Pressure-treated (chemically treated) lumber is generally not recommended for use around vegetable beds.
4. Be available. A cold frame requires attention, sometimes daily. Except for the coldest and cloudiest days,
a cold frame will usually need to be opened or vented during the day. With bright sunshine, temperatures can easily exceed 100 degrees inside a closed cold frame; which will cook your cool-season veggies! And, you will usually have to return to close the cold frame for the night. As an option, you can go “high-tech” and install temperature-sensitive automatic venting devices on your cold frame {at additional expense, of course}.

Got any other cold frame tips?… if so, please add a comment to this blog.

Garden on…

blog post and photos by Mark Murphy, CMG

Many gardeners plant their "seed potatoes" in early spring, and the young plants are up and growing before the Average Last Frost date of Spring {April 15th here in Rutherford County}.

Potato plants are not frost-tolerant or "hardy", so you will need to protect your plants if a Spring frost is threatening.

One easy way to insulate your plants is to cover them with any lightweight mulch material that you have handy, such as the grass clippings shown in this photo. Keep in mind that grass mulch can get hot, especially if the material was recently cut and is still "green". So, it's a good idea to remove the grass from the plants the following day, so the plants don't overheat.

Another option is to cover the plant with soil. This technique is convenient for plants that are still somewhat small. Best of all, since you will probably be "hilling" your potato plants anyway, you can cover the plant with soil for frost protection and then just leave it; the plant will re-emerge through the soil within a couple of days.

Instead of searching for sheets or row covers, look for items such as mulch materials or soil that may be right around your potato planting... those could be your ticket to easy potato protection!