5 Favorites: Cold Frames to Warm Up the Garden - Gardenista
A simple cold frame keeps seedlings warm when the garden is frozen. As humble as many of these mini-greenhouses may look, cobbled from bits of scrap wood and salvaged windowpanes, cold frames have an amazing ability to create micro-climates. Or wing it, with an old piece of glass and some two-by-fours, because as the garden writer Henry Mitchell once put it, “it is more important for the gardener to be enchanted than for critics to be pleased.” In Santa Barbara, California Rob Maday Landscape Architecture created a year-round edible garden for clients who were East Coast transplants. At Vervain Nursery in the UK, cold frames keep tender flowers happy in winter. For more, see Studio Visit: Glasshouse Flowers with India Hurst of Vervain. Photography by India Hobson. An elaborate Victorian scheme, in the melon yard of the Heligan estate in Cornwall, England. A Farmer D Cedar Cold Frame measures 3 feet by 3 feet; $199.95 from Williams-Sonoma. Monitor soil for optimal germination temperatures for healthier seedlings. For more, see DIY: Reviving the Cold Frame. Photograph by Erin Boyle.