I know last year, the first year I had a cold frame, my husband felt a bit cheated when I asked that he come help me lift it off the raised bed in late May.
“That’s it?”
“It’s done its job. It’s warm now. Everything will burn up if we don’t take the frame off.”
I had only planted the seeds for the greens and carrots in the cold frame in late March. All that work for two measly months? I wouldn’t hoist the frame back on the bed until the end of October, and by Thanksgiving, all but the heartiest greens (kale, winter spinach), were frozen.
I know he was thinking that I could have started the carrots, lettuces and kale inside on the windowsill instead, but that is not the same. This year I did put a small planter in the windowsill and sprinkle it with some lettuce seeds. But, as usual, they came up fragile and pale. Struggling to reach the sun, they were more stem than leaf. By the time they were rinsed, their cell structure seemed to have collapsed. They perked up a bit in the fridge, but it was not much of a salad.
See instead the cold frame (above). My revised-for-reasonableness goal now is to be eating something fresh from the garden by May 1st. This year we harvested the first real salad on April 29th. It was a side salad, sure, supplemented by sprouts and store-bought carrots and avocado. But it was really, really good.
Meanwhile, in the bed where I sowed the earliest lettuce, there are just little baby plants (above). Here it is, May 15, and outside it’s 43 degrees with a cold, northwestern wind. There were freeze warnings for the last two nights and tonight, and the temperature did dip as low as 29 degrees. I covered up two exposed beds– the broccoli/brussels sprouts/cauliflower/romanesco transplants and the young lettuces.
Even if the cold frame is only useful for two more weeks, as we move yet again from winter straight into summer (May 15 is supposed to be our last frost date), what a wonderful thing it is to have a cold frame. It is the difference between food and more waiting. On this blustery night, in addition to the last jar of Thai tomato soup, we’ll have a fresh salad to eat!