cold frame

Snow Is Good



Consider the combination of high and low temperatures that is being reported we (and our plants) are about to receive: 

  • Today:           45 and 27
  • Friday:           41 and 25
  • Saturday:       41 and 25
  • Sunday:         41 and 23!


In New York City, the nearby ocean, the moist air, and certainly the time of year, influence the temperatures. When our temperatures are in the forties for highs, the sky cloudy, partly cloudy, rainy, damp, the fluctuation between high and low has been, from what I remember, not significant, maybe 10 to 15 degrees. In fact, the average for these dates run about 45-53 for highs, with lows around 30-37. 

Last year, however, March 27th (this Sunday's date) had temperatures between 44 and 29 degrees F. Although colder than average, this is within the 15 degree fluctuation and with a low that is less troublesome at 29 degrees. This Sunday's low of 23 degrees makes for a temperature fluctuation of 18 degrees, which as numbers go, is just a few more than the usual 15. But three degree difference means that our tender, young plants will spend many more hours freezing, and, by my classification, makes for an unusual temperature event.

I have already raked up the leaves, transplanted perennials, and planted frost-hardy vegetables.  Only now do I understand why a fabric row cover that provides only two degrees protection can become a highly useful tool in the field. So consider this -welcome any snow that falls and remains over the next several days. One, two, or more inches of wet snow will help to protect emerging plants from several hours of freezing much like a row cover does -but possibly better. 

Update: Weather Underground has been slowly upping the low temperature forecast, but also lowering the high, so that now the temps lie squarely within the average 15 degree fluctuation. No matter, they're now saying we have a low of 25 on Sunday, which, believe it or not, is considerably better than 23!

Playing Outside


I've been playing outside these past few days. Digging out the cold frame, moving pots, tossing frozen cat poop, and beginning to think about picking up all that litter. Bulbs are shooting up greens, expecting crocus any day now. The cold frame has seen better days ever since it became the cat frame, and then snow shed, but it's hanging on enough to do its job.

And its job is to house the seedlings on sunny days, lid propped.

These complicated, bent beginnings are leeks, my first attempt at the onion.

These are the leggy, but graceful Broccoli 'Piracicaba' seedlings. I did not try hard enough to drop one seed per dib, but I do find that broccoli disentangles fairly easily when it's time to plant.

These seedlings are only a few days up, and the window sun and excessive kitchen heat push them to grow too fast. So they get to play outside whenever it's sunny and above 35 degrees F. They come in at night, unless it isn't expected to drop below freezing. I do want to balance the quick growth of inside with the hardening of outside, so that they are ahead of the game when I go to plant in the middle of March. 

Urban Farmer -Wasssss Dooowwwwnnn!


My tomato seedlings have been getting stockier, reaching up to the lid of the cold frame. Yesterday morning I stepped out to see that at least two of the varieties had fried tops.

When you go to the nursery, its easy to imagine that all the seedlings are all that the nurseryman started. But only the best make it to the tables and racks (if not, you just walk away, right?). At home, starting just a few seedlings, the pressure is on to get it right.


So was the culprit the cold temps two nights ago? It never got down to freezing that night and the seedlings were in the cold-frame with a bottle of warm water. Was it the diluted fish fertilizer I put on them a few days ago? Its hard to imagine that the 2-4-1 diluted liquid did them harm and why some yet not the others? The sun is getting stronger and despite low temperatures, in the cold-frame greenhouse its quite warm. The tomato tops are close to touching the polycarbonate. I suppose the culprit really was my carelessness, but I think all but one will recover.

Then there's the orange pixie problem. I started two of those in February with all the others. But they never passed an inch tall, stunted, wierd. Both fried in the cold-frame. This week a new one I seeded in a tp tube has sprouted and looks considerable healthier, although it is having trouble shaking its seed pod from its cotyledons. I've been tempted more than once to try to pull it off like a sweater stuck on its arms and head. The pixie is supposed to handle pots and planters well.
We'll see if it ever gets there.

I will move the tomato seedlings out to the ground during sunny days, cold-frame at night and rainy days. I hope I can get a good run out of my snap peas before I have to clear the way for these tomatoes!

Actually Gardened Yesterday

I actually did some real gardening yesterday. I felt I should go to the studio before work, but as I stood outside trying to remember what plant was where in my overcrowded space, I took out the shovel and started moving things around. I divided a fat aster, I moved the maximillion sunflowers to the farthest corner near the stoop. I moved the boltonia closer to that corner as well. I moved the geranium "johnson's blue" to the front of the bed along with the heuchera which was smothered by the sheffield pink mums (boy they spread). I pulled out some yarrow 'cause that is always growing fat. I had extra of this and the aster, so I had to find a place to put them. I placed some yarrow in a tree pit of one of our new trees across the street. We'll see how it fares. I moved extra sunflower to the far end of the side garden, and I planted the aster and more yarrow in between some long unmoved telephone poles. It felt good to dig. And I knew there'd be some rain on the way (today, hopefully). Only sadness is that my cold-frame is blocking the sun of some bulbs popping up. The daffs are about ready to bloom.

Phyto Photo Philia

Tomato and basil seedlings inside the cold-frame.




When they sprouted, I was away in Philadelphia. It was a really warm weekend and I had plastic wrap draped over their seed beds. In 36 hours these guys were pale, leggy and curved under the plastic. My response was to get these guys out into the cold-frame as soon as possible. The bright light, occasional sunshine, and cooler night temperature kept stem length in check. They also started to develop their first set of leaves and stouter stems.


Now their stems are purpling and growing the fine hairs of maturity.


So far no sprouting of the arugula, or greens mixes. Its only been a couple of days.


Training the snap peas


I have broccoli starts in a variety of places, including these two: a perennial pot and wooden planter.


Last, but certainly not least, the over-wintered spinach. Looking good, but soon to be outnumbered by the sprouts of this spring's spinach.


I Really Should Be Working


broccoli, tomatoes, basil

When did any day become solely about mundane gardening and posting?

Today I took out the watering can. That's it then, the official beginning. A new neighbor who saw me about asked if I was planning the garden. Planning?, I questioned smugly, I've already started. Peas right there, they survived the freeze last night and a ground assault by squirrels! Oh, who do I think I am?

I planted new pea seeds into the planters today since I learned they can be grown on top of one another. Also, squirrels! So on goes the mesh.




I planted spinach seeds in the spinach planter where some spinach has over-wintered.




The broccoli that I over-wintered is starting to get stout-stemmed.




And should I want to destroy something this year, it'd be this Yew tree that puts shade on the vegetable garden. The veggies need more sun, particularly in March and September. I secretly hoped the snow would weigh this guy down to his demise.




Compromise? Landlord, please take those dead trees we call telephone poles out of the front yard and I can put the veggies there, grow enough for the neighbors to share. Then the Yew will be a welcome shade giver to an area re-designated for perennials!


Sorry, webiworld, crocus on the march!

Cloud Cover

Its late, I left work and what does the Columbus Circle CNN super screen say, oh its 37 degrees F. Hmm, seems kind of cloudy up there. Now Brooklyn, off the subway, hmm... I can see that its cloudy now. Doesn't feel that cold. Wind not much to complain about. Moon barely visible behind nature's row cover. I think its gonna be alright. 

Oh, hell. I got some plastic, just lay it over the peas. So thats what I did. But I think the clouds are staying and my intuition says no deep freeze. But I did pull in the tomato seedlings from the cold-frame. They've been living outside through the day and I pull em in at night if its going to freeze. They're toughening up this way, after their super growth spurt this past weekend on the warm windowsill.

A Pot to Pea In





I put the peas in their pots, outside, cold or not. It was chilly yesterday, cloudy, rain threatening, but I decided that if I wait too long, it will be warmer than they like. So in they went. In vegetable gardening, it is often tempting to be cautious, to fear failure because we have only one shot for getting it right this year. But really, it doesn't matter, its not like I'll starve. Its an experiment to learn, to know by doing. So in they go.


If you look closely, you can see the TP tubes under the pea plants. Apparently pea seeds like to be planted directly into the garden, but I didn't do this. In order to protect the plant while planting them, I peeled off the paper tube on the lower portion, but kept it together on the upper portion. This seemed to work out fine.




Broccoli starts have been getting bigger, all have well-developed sets of leaves. I think they will go into their planter by this weekend. Right now, however, they will remain in the cold-frame day and night. Behind you can see the failed "winter-sown" broccoli. Better luck next time. The great advantage of starting seeds in your window is that they sprout quickly and you can get a jump on the season. Winter-sown will work, but there is not much of this jump.





Snow Day


spirea in snow

Well, the weatherman called it. What a gift. I work at a college, and I knew late last night that they would be calling a snow day -all buildings closed. We had a lot to accomplish today and the students have a big project due tomorrow. This really screws with that! But as I put on my shoes to head outside I thought, wow -when weather slows life down there are so many other things that can be accomplished simply because you cannot do what is planned, like going to work. I now have a whole day. Here's what I am doing:

Drinking way too much home brewed coffee. I am wired, I feel dizzied. I am cooking many meals for the week in a much more thoughtful way than I would with only a Monday morning to accomplish this. I had a group critique yesterday evening, so I am allowing myself to not use this time for the studio, I'm being domestic -staying in. I'm going to put up those coffee mug hooks that have been loitering around. I am going to clean some. I've already cooked the broccoli rabe for one dinner, moving onto a sardine dish with red peppers, and going to make fennel seed meatballs later. I wrote two 99 word stories for Garden Rant. I'm posting here as well. I'm going to research growing mushrooms and figure out how to get a lower rate on our cellphones. Oh, and I am going to get those tomato seeds in pots and in the window.

No snow, then I'd have been at work at 10am. Its how to make the money, but monolithic -look at that diverse list of accomplishments!

Beyond all that, the land needed this moisture. We received 2.98 inches in January while normal is over 4 inches. This February we received .86 inches, where normal should be around 3 inches. March normally has around 4 inches of rain, frozen or not. We can count on about and inch of rain from this storm as 12 inches of snow equals 10-12 inches of snow. So good for us.

Of course, why not plant vegetable seeds on such a wintry day? Tomatoes anyone. I have five varieties to plant this year, conservatively planting two or three seeds for each variety in their starting pots.


I'm glad I didn't set out the growing snap pea plants too soon or it'd look like this.




I'm glad I've only been planning the vegetable garden, not planting it!




Giving new meaning to the name "cold-frame." I'd say about 10 inches of snow on there.




The cat is bugging me, wants attention, doesn't get this staying at home thing.


PP in TPT or Planting Peas in Toilet Paper Tubes

I am planting Snap Peas for early spring harvest. Normally I would want to plant these directly outside, but I decided against that for this experiment. I will be planting them into my tomato planters and a good hard freeze is not only possible, but expected before winter gives it up. I thought -why take the chance. So I am starting these seeds indoors, then moving them to the cold-frame outside for hardening-off. Afterward, maybe sometime in early March, I will transplant them into the tomato planters if the weather seems amenable to the notion.


I am using TP/PT tubes. Paper Towel tubes, cut into three and Toilet Paper tubes used without alteration. The soil-filling process was a little messy, more than I would have liked, but it was easy enough to clean up the soil-less potting mix. You can see in the photo that I am also using yogurt-containers, old vegetable start pots and other recycleables -all of which have bottoms with holes.


I was most interested in the paper tubes because they have no bottoms. I wanted to see how well the soil stayed in the tube, even after multiple waterings. The soil was ever-so-slightly damp and it stayed in the tube with a little compaction. Here I am holding the tube, soil facing the force of gravity, yet the soil stayed in place.



A closeup of the bottom of the paper tube. I even used a large (about 3-inch diameter) paper tube from a role of drawing paper and the soil stayed put same as this.


In these two shots you can see the tubes placed in a plastic food container. I added water to the top of the soil and also into the plastic container. The water was quickly taken up and the soil stayed put.

You may have seen Johnny's, or even Martha Stewart hawking a device for making potting soil cubes for seed starting. Its a great tool for someone with tons of seeding to do, but for those of us in the city, with our small spaces -all we need is toilet paper or paper towel tubes.



First Course: Broccoli



The Broccoli seeds (Lake Valley Organics variety Broccoli 'Calabrese') sprouted two days ago. 
The seedlings, most are up, are about an inch or so tall. I only get 4-5 solid sun-hours in the window, then bright daylight for the rest of the day. So far, so good. 



I'm going to seed some Snap Peas in tp and pt cardboard tubes (you see them up there) this weekend for cold-frame sprouting. I want those in the tomato planters by March for early April harvest. Spinach will go in, planted outside, before the end of February -hoping for moderate temperatures. You know, despite all the frozen weather this year, my spinach from last year survived this far in the planter. I will seed this planter again, soon with the spinach.