Freeze? What Freeze? Use cold frames to lessen the bite of winter.

This last week was a cold one, that's for sure. Most of my winter vegetables are suffering because I didn't get out and cover them. I should know better because I've lived my whole life in the Pacific Northwest and know what cold can do. I guess living here in the hot Texas south made me a little complacent.

Not all is lost though. My radishes, kale, peas, and cabbage all sprouted last week thanks to the cozy environment I planted them in. I created cold frames over two of my raised beds and they worked like a charm.

Cold frames are essentially unheated big or mini greenhouse like structures. You can make them out of glass, plastic, or fiberglass. They can be covered rows or boxes - whatever works for your situation. My cold frames are PVC pipe bent over my planting boxes, draped with heavy clear plastic.

Here's how I made them.

I made cold frames for two boxes. I purchased six, ten foot 1/2 inch PVC pipes at Lowe's. This size is very flexible and will bend easily. These I made into the hoops. I also purchased two, ten foot 3/4 inch PVC pipes to fashion clips out of, and also to attach to the bottom of my boxes to help keep the plastic contraption from lifting off in the wind.

The first thing I did was pound six rebar stakes into the ground next to my boxes, leaving about six inches exposed. The previous homeowner had left several pieces in the garage, so I used these. I noticed you can buy a bundle of these at Lowe's - which is probably where they came from. Once the stakes were positioned, I simply slipped the 1/2 inch PVC over the top to form the hoop.

I brought some plastic with me from Oregon. It was left over from a greenhouse I had installed back in Springfield. It is 6 mil "white" or clear plastic that I got from our local home center.

In order to keep the plastic from blowing off the hoops, I fashioned clips out of the 3/4 inch PVC pipes. I measured and marked three inch long pieces and cut them off the pipe using a hacksaw.

To make them into a clip, I removed the bottom third of the piece. I just used tin snips for this and it worked really well. I then hand sanded them to remove the burrs that might tear my plastic. I made three clips for each hoop, plus two more for the ends.

Before I got carried away with covering the boxes, I planted my seeds. (I did this a couple of weeks ago before it got really cold, so the soil was still relatively warm.) One box has French Breakfast Radishes and Improved Dwarf Siberian Kale. The other box has Filderkraut Cabbage and Oregon Giant Peas. All of these seeds germinate in temperatures between 40 and 55 degrees.

Now I was ready for plastic.

The roll I have is twenty feet wide, and that turned out to be perfect for this project. I rolled out enough to cover the ends completely, cut it, then unfolded it over the hoops.



Once I had the plastic positioned, I taped some clear duct tape over the area where I was going to put the clip. I didn't want the very act of installing the clip to tear the plastic. I also periodically remove or lift up the plastic in order to water, so I REALLY wanted to make sure I didn't tear the cover. If I'm careful, they might even last another season or two.

I laid some scrap 2x4's on the ends to help keep things from blowing around too much. Both of my cold frames held up well during the wind that brought the arctic temperatures to town. One reason I decided to make hoops is so my plants can grow fairly tall under protection. This allows me to plant earlier and keep the plastic on until night temperatures are over 50 degrees. The head room also keeps the cover from getting too hot in the sun and burning tender leaves.

The clips make it easy to remove the plastic during warm days, or simply to lift it a little so I can irrigate. I'm really glad I reinforced the clip area with duct tape. I tried it without on a leftover piece and, just as I suspected, the plastic tore too easily.

I'll probably leave the hoops up and attach floating row cover to it this spring and summer. The row cover helps keep out pests and can serve as shade cloth if I need it.

It's amazing how cheap and fast this whole thing was to install. The PVC cost less than $1.50 each. The only expensive item is the plastic - and I'm lucky I had some on hand. You can buy it at the home center in different lengths. I had originally bought a 100 foot roll, if I had to buy just enough for one, each of my boxes probably has $20 worth of plastic. That's a big reason why I want to take care of it and use it more than once. You don't need actual boxes to make this work (mine are made from free discarded fence boards.) You can build the same tunnel over vegetables planted in the ground. The advantage of the boxes is that the soil heats up and stays warmer than the surrounding landscape. That means my seeds can sprout even earlier.

Go ahead, laugh at the cold. Mother Nature sending an arctic blast your way? Install a cold frame and have a little piece of spring months ahead of everyone else. Radish anyone?