2 acre farm: Cozy Cold Frame

2 acre farm

The experiences, trials, and lives on a small farm in rural Illinois.

Sunday, January 31, 2010

Cozy Cold Frame


It has been dropping into the teens at night still but it is time to start hardening off the onions and making room for new seedlings under the lights, time to put the cold frames to the test. I put the onions out in the afternoon when the cold frames would be at their warmest. I let them get one hour of light and then covered with a doubled up sheet. I will keep adding an hour a day to their light regiment for four days then they are on their own. I think I will keep pinning the sheet down at night though as long as it stays this cold to hold in the heat. It has been three days now since I moved them out and they look good (pictures are from today).
I also seeded fifty pepper plants which include thirty King of the North's, ten Shishito, and ten unknown jumbo pepper seed passed along from my dad. All of the peppers are bells but the Shishito is supposed to have a spice to it. It was a freebie from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds (they are good for that) and the description reads:

"A favorite old Japanese variety which produces 3" long, slightly wrinkled fruit that are perfect for making tempura and other traditional recipes. Fruit is emerald green color, mildly flavored with a just bit of spice; it really is superb. It is the standard with many chefs."

I also seeded a flat of celery 'broadcast' style. The variety of celery is Tall Utah which is a standard in the celery biz from what I gather and since I am new to celery I like the idea of going with a proven variety.
Next up is everything else that gets seeded inside: tomatoes, asparagus, ground cherries, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, and other things I am forgetting I am sure. Although I may start the asparagus before all that so I can harden them off and make room for the mass planting since the asparagus won’t get harvested this year anyhow and the timing is less critical.

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5 Comments:

Anonymous Rhonda Daniels said...

Wow! These look really great.

I am also completely impressed that somehow in central Illinois-in January no less- you have found real live sunshine for your cold frames :)

February 1, 2010 at 8:32 AM  
Blogger Nathan (2af) said...

Thanks I am really happy with them. The sun comes and goes, today isn't look quite as nice. In fact I was hounding Aimee (my wife and live in photographer) all day to get pictures while the sun was cooperating. No sun till Wednesday now (according to the extremely variable forecast). Thanks for stopping by.

February 1, 2010 at 3:39 PM  
Blogger jessers said...

I have a modest garden, but I just received my seeds for my summer aspirations. It has been soo cold in ohio, but maybe mid february I will start them up. Beautiful photos!

February 1, 2010 at 11:13 PM  
Anonymous Rhonda Daniels said...

I always love to see what my neighbors are up to in their gardens,it's inspiring :)

Your cold frames are terrific! Keep us all posted? I am interested to see how they perform for you.

February 2, 2010 at 11:58 AM  
Blogger Nathan (2af) said...

Jessers- Mid February is a great time to start almost anything. I start things earlier mostly so they will be large enough to move to the cold frames and start hardening which in turn makes room under the lights to start other things.
Rhonda- Thanks for stopping by neighbor! I will keep posting on the progress with the seedlings in general and the of course the cold frames.

February 6, 2010 at 9:27 AM  

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