Winter greens bed genesis

Spent Tuesday afternoon (Sept. 24) piecing together the ginormous cold frame for the winter greens bed at the side of the house. Do-it-yourself projects always daunt me, especially at the moment that I stand before a hundred little pieces of metal and plastic and wonder how I'm going to do this. I am NOT a handyman! But it's done, thankfully. I tilled and fortified the soil (fish emulsion and vermiculite) and put a thermometer in there. With the cold frame OPEN, it was 80 degrees inside the CF on a 65-degree day. If I closed the CF, it would easily go up to or beyond 100 degrees - way too hot for happy greens. The CF is sheltered from wind by the house, a good thing when it starts getting blustery. Plus, the sun reflects off the light-colored shingles and back onto the CF for extra warmth.

Green leaf lettuce is coming up nicely under the grow lights indoors; parsley and lamb's lettuce are lagging behind (parsley is a notoriously slow germinator, and this is my first try with lamb's lettuce). I might plant up the green leaf lettuce in the CF Saturday (Sept. 27). Put a large chunk of amethyst at the foot of the CF for good energy. Planting soon!