Cold Frame (Insulated)

This Insulated Cold Frame is Great for

-- winter food-growing without an external heat source

This Insulated Cold Frame instructable uses

-straw/hay bails
-scavenged pieces of wood
-used/rejected old window (hopefully non-leaded)
-about a foot of an old rubber hose for a hinge (another option is cloth)
-Horse Poop - when it biodegrades it heats the cold frame and provides nutrients to your food.

Step 1: Place Window on top of Hay Bales

This will give you an idea of how big of a gap you need.

Comments

[trip0884]

How do you know at what angle the frame should be? That is, what are the considerations for angling the windows at a 0 percent slope vs., say, a 30 percent slope?

You say that too great a pitch (slope) causes hot spots that are not conducive to plant growth, while too low a pitch eliminates too much sunlight.  Sooo, what pitch would be "too great"?  In addition, I do wonder why not make a double sided cold frame...kind of a mini green house.

Any insight would be much appreciated as I have some windows that I'd love to incorporate into a cold frame, but am unsure about the pitch issue.

[cooked1]

I love the idea of using bales!

[mutdl1012270]

what kinds of plants can grow during the winter?  Only herbs and lettuce - do you think tomatoes might actually survive in the Midwest?

[iwantthisgreenwashed]

And as far as tomatoes, they are very popular here where I am in fairfield iowa. Especially in wintertime. People do canning for extra tomatoes in the summertime so they have some for the winter time.

[iwantthisgreenwashed]

www.google.com is a good resource.
a search for
"winter food cold frames"
will give you many options.

Here's one of the pages from a google search:

http://www.naturallyhamilton.ca/cold-frames-workshop-growing-your-food-knee-deep-snow