There's a very inspiring picture in Eliot Coleman's Four Season Harvest of picking lettuce from a snow covered cold frame. Yesterday I got to do the same. I had a salad with some mache from the garden.
Amy, I love the picture of the cold frame and mache. I am reading Eliot Coleman's book and becoming familiar with winter gardening in Nov 2011. I bought a used cold frame and also made one similiar to yours. I have spinach about 2 inches tall, and just planted some mache seed. Did I wait too late for the mache seed? I live in Music City, USA (Nashville).
I imagine Nashville is very different to here so I don't know but I think it's supposed to be pretty much grown by the time the weather gets cold enough to really need the cold frame. But if you did plant too late hopefully the cold frame will preserve the spinach and it can get a big head start in the spring.
To be honest I haven't had too much luck with the cold frame recently, I think maybe I have been planting too late (no I wasn't smart enough to write down when I planted that mache) and I also seem to be having too much humidity in there. I haven't found a particularly good resource for how to use the cold frame, even Eliot Coleman is a bit vague in how to actually use it in Four Season Harvest, maybe I need his other book Winter Harvest.
Amy, I love the picture of the cold frame and mache. I am reading Eliot Coleman's book and becoming familiar with winter gardening in Nov 2011. I bought a used cold frame and also made one similiar to yours. I have spinach about 2 inches tall, and just planted some mache seed. Did I wait too late for the mache seed? I live in Music City, USA (Nashville).
ReplyDeleteI imagine Nashville is very different to here so I don't know but I think it's supposed to be pretty much grown by the time the weather gets cold enough to really need the cold frame. But if you did plant too late hopefully the cold frame will preserve the spinach and it can get a big head start in the spring.
ReplyDeleteTo be honest I haven't had too much luck with the cold frame recently, I think maybe I have been planting too late (no I wasn't smart enough to write down when I planted that mache) and I also seem to be having too much humidity in there. I haven't found a particularly good resource for how to use the cold frame, even Eliot Coleman is a bit vague in how to actually use it in Four Season Harvest, maybe I need his other book Winter Harvest.