First Garden Post of 2013

So… last year about this time I was hinting at the new “secret weapon” that was going to extend the season and transform my garden. It turned out to be the cheap piece of crap you see in ruins below. Actually, it was quite an expensive piece of crap.

It was a disappointment from the day the box arrived. Built to ship flat and not to hold up to anything more than a slight summer breeze, the cover, made of aluminum and, yes, the very cool chambered polycarbonate, took Steve and I an entire afternoon to assemble. Not a single piece went together the way it was supposed to. It’s true, I did get great greens into December, but the best thing I can say about it is that it motivated Steve to make me a new and better one! It was obvious that he could do better, but I had not been able to impress upon him the importance of having a cold frame in the vegetable garden. Faced with the collapse of this cold frame, however, he was motivated this winter to make me a new one.

Voila!! It is so much more beautiful than I even expected. The closing edges are beveled to fit snugly and the whole thing is large, spacious and beefy enough to withstand some winter action and summer wind. It is made of green-treated lumber and polycarbonate (which Steve has fallen in love with and he is now designing an entire office remodel around the stuff, to include some interesting lighting, closet door and cabinet options… but I think I can talk him down from that.)

For two weeks now, Steve has been talking about how it just feels like spring. This despite another foot of snow falling and some lingering below-zero temperatures. It’s about the light, the sun rising earlier and setting later, and today was a day that can only be described as inspiring. Even the chickens came out of the solarium for a walk around.

Sophia entertained herself on the cool old sled… and Ellie entertained us by sitting on a snowbank.

Annie threw some snowballs, and we stood around in the sun talking about movies and books until it was clear we should go inside, if for no other reason than to put on sunglasses. I bought a couple of heating pads to put beneath my flats, and today I’ll plant a few seeds to be ready for the new and improved cold frame… as soon as the soil can be worked!