Last fall, as the summer was winding down, I was desolate about the idea of not being able to go out and pick my salad for the next 6 months or more.
So I decided to try growing in a cold frame for the first time.
In September, my husband kindly slapped together a rough frame made of plywood, with a sheet of perspex on the top. We added this to the top of one of our existing raised beds.
Full of hope, I planted some spinach and arugula seeds and expected to enjoy the harvest into the cold months.
The reality was that I had started the plants too late. The weather was already chilly, so the seeds only germinated v-e-r-y slowly.
In fact, the greens only made it to a couple of inches tall before the really cold weather came. Even the sunlight coming through the top during the day couldn't protect them from frost overnight.
I had to admit defeat, and console myself with vegetables from our local organic vegetable growers, Strawberry Hill Farm. Thank goodness, they know a lot more about winter growing than I do!
I had really forgotten about those little plants, so what a pleasant surprise it was, while out on a morning visit with the chickens, to lift the lid and find several healthy little spinach plants just doing their thing! They looked as happy as could be, and were bursting with healthy green energy!
Somehow they had made it through all the minus 30s, and the dark and gloomy days with no heat. They had also had very little light because (due to a design flaw that I'll want to correct next fall) the frame around the top meant that, for a large part of the winter, the lid was covered with snow!
Since that discovery a couple of weeks ago, I've added some new seeds, and thrown a couple of seedlings in too. The spinach is still growing, and I'm expecting to see other green shoots any day!
I'm so looking forward to picking our very own spinach, lettuce and chard again soon!
I hope you have had some fun surprises in your garden this year too!
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