“Building and Using a Cold Frame”
A cold-frame is almost as important as a hotbed. The two should always go together. It is simply a frame of boards constructed like that of the hotbed, and set over a quantity of rich soil into which the seedlings from the hotbed are transplanted when they have attained some size.
This frame should also be fitted with a sash for the newly transplanted seedlings. The sash should be lifted on all pleasant days, to give the plants inside the benefit of fresh air, and thus harden them for the time when they must go into the ground outside.
At night and on all cold days the sash must be closed to retain the necessary degree of warmth. A little chilly weather will often injure the plants quite as much as a touch of frost would.
In sunny weather be sure to open the cold frame before the heat of the sun, by concentrating on the glass from becoming too intense for the young plants. The admission of fresh air will counteract all danger from this source.
The temperature in the cold-frame should range between 60 and 65 if one would grow strong and healthy plants, and of course one wants to grow nothing but strong healthy plants.
It will readily be understood from what has been said that both hotbed and cold-frame will require considerable amounts of attention. They can not be expected to take care of themselves after being built. They must be regulated according to the weather.
Air must be admitted whenever it is possible to do so without injury to the plants, and cold drafts must be avoided as one would avoid the plague. It will be necessary to consult the thermometer a good many times a day. That is what must be depended on more than anything else in the management of a hotbed and cold-frame.
In the north the first of March is quite early enough to start a hotbed for the growing of very early vegetables, and a month later for plants intended for general garden use.
It is not advisable to have plants remain in either the hotbed or cold-frame so long that they become weakened by too long continued heat. Injury of this kind can only be prevented by the proper admission of fresh air, and the regulation of the temperature as already advised.
I make mention of this again because it is something that no gardener should ignore, and I can’t help emphasizing this fact and how important it is.
Do not take the trouble to start any of the ordinary vegetables, which mature during the latter part of summer in the garden, in the hotbed. They will come ahead rapidly enough if planted in the open ground, where they will be much easier to care for.
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