Cold frame

While we're waiting for our fence to suntan before we stain it, I took on another outdoor project this weekend. Yep, it's Garden 2...

Planting season is upon us, so let me tell you a little story of how this garden came to be. When we bought a house last year, I failed to inquire about the summer weather, thinking it would be just as warm and clear as it was on our open house day. NOPE. Instead, I encountered summers full of chilly fog and harsh winds, much to the dismay of my aspiring green thumb.

Simple project to protect tender plants in winter

A cold frame with a glass top can give you a 12-month growing season, even in Maine, and it's the easiest and most economical way to extend your harvest. Build the one described here, and you're on your way to fresh veggies year round.

Your plant-growing season can start long before warm weather hits -- all it takes is a wooden cold frame box with a transparent roof. Here's how to build one of these mini-greenhouses yourself.

Use rot-resistant planks and a salvaged window to build a protective box that extends the growing season. (Scroll past video players for written steps)

This cold frame is a bottomless box topped by glass frames. With the materials list, a detailed plan, and instructions, you'll be able to build your own.

This cold frame is a bottomless box topped by glass frames. With the materials list, a detailed plan, and instructions, you'll be able to build your own.

Extend the growing season and bring fresh, local food to the table year-round by adding quick hoops to your winter vegetable garden.

Although both quick hoops and cold frames can be used to extend your gardening season, quick hoops are better in most respects.

This easy to build industrial strength hotbed is a season-extender built to last that can be used for eight months a year or more in your garden.

The cold frame greenhouse will enable you to give seedlings and cuttings a head start on spring growth.

Niki Jabbour, The Year Round Vegetable Gardener Enjoying fresh homegrown vegetables and herbs even in the coldest winter months; now wouldn't that be wonderful! I know what is probably running through your mind: it would nice, but it's wishful thinking. That is certainly what I always thought anyway. Then, I popped into visit Niki Jabbour's blog The Year Round Veggie Gardener. There, gracing the cover of her about-to-be-realeased book, was a picture of Niki in her snow covered garden…

Hoop House Plan You Can Build

How to build a cold frame for free or next to nothing from second-hand and scrap materials that will help you propagate and protect plants in the garden.

Get plans and a materials list for a clear vinyl cold frame color with an optional automatic venting system.