Cold Frame Gardening

I went to Atwoods this weekend to pick up dog chews, and came home to find my Hunny building this:

Any guesses as to what it is? It’s a cold frame! Cold frame gardening has been a dream of his for years. He’s been collecting sliding glass doors and large pieces of glass found on Craigslist for free. The table/platform is made primarily of pallet wood he got for free. He’s so excited.

Yes, I’ll tell you about my shelter research in a bit. Just hold on …

We’re at that point in life where, of the three children, only one can really help with projects like this. The 18 and 19 year olds have jobs and school, so we don’t see too much of them. The 15 year old, however, is available to help with most things like this, meaning he learns to measure twice, use power tools, help draft plans to make stuff. And photo bomb.

Real funny, kid.

The chickens and Jim were none too happy about the new project, as it’s a) near the door to their coop, and b) there were noisy power tools being employed. Jimmy, especially, hates power tools.

I didn’t help any. I had a duckling to tend to. Petey, however, is showing, at an early age, what kind of duck he intends to be. He made a great supervisor. Good boy! (We think he’s a boy, but have no real way of knowing)

Some of you may be asking what a cold frame is ( thank you Wikipedia) and why we’d want one in our yard.

[quote align=”center” color=”#999999″]In agriculture and gardening, a cold frame is a transparent-roofed enclosure, built low to the ground, used to protectplants from cold weather. The transparent top admits sunlight and prevents heat escape via convection that would otherwise occur, particularly at night. Essentially, a cold frame functions as a miniature greenhouse to extend the growing season.[/quote]

Except ours isn’t built low to the ground. Hunny lined the base of the table with plywood and plans to add a layer of insulation.

We love to garden, and have made a couple of successful attempts since we’ve been in Tulsa. The weather frequently thwarts our gardening hopes, but more recently the chickens have been our gardening nemeses. Especially with the cooler weather crops, like lettuce, broccoli, snow peas. Grr. I’ve used any number of tricks to keep the girls out of the beds, but they find a way to destroy the crops we most want.

Cold frame gardening will, hopefully, be the solution to our problem, allowing us to grow what are already cooler weather crops, protected from the elements and the chickens. I’ll keep y’all posted.

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I promised, on Friday, to tell you about my animal shelter adventures. Two things:

1. I contacted the city shelter and will be attending a class this coming Saturday. The class is required before being allowed to work directly with the animals. I’ll be contacting them again this afternoon about what donations they may need, especially with the weather changing. I’ll let you know, next week, how the class went. Hopefully they’ll let me snap photos.
2. I got lost Friday afternoon, looking for a leather warehouse (don’t ask), and found another, smaller animal rescue. The door was locked, but it’s connected to a veterinarian. I’ll be calling or going back there soon.
3. Oh! Not shelter related, but while at Atwoods, stocking up on Jones Natural Chews, I saw that they’d be holding a pet costume contest at the end of the month! Sadly, I won’t be in town. But! Totally look for an Atwoods near you and see if they’re holding a similar contest. What fun! Pick up some JNC treats while you’re at it. Your dog will love you for it.

That whole “I won’t be in town” thing? At the end of the month I’m taking a road trip and I can’t WAIT! More info to come!!

Until I write again …

Flea