Winter Garden

[Countryboy]

And ya can skip the boring pix of plants and all that green stuff. Just baskets overflowing with tomatoes and strawberries and watermelon, eh? lol

[Dumbo]

Just baskets overflowing with tomatoes and strawberries and watermelon, eh? lol

That will be my 2nd book.
Berries, Cherries & Melons - A Beginners Guide.

[kelly_m]

You did call yourself a virgin.......

[OGrubber]

I'm going to call myself Ogrubs Guffaw and direct people here so Ogrubber can answer them and they will think it's me!....
I already copied Ogrubbers science of "Solarization". It will be in my first chapter.

k. Just need Ogrubbers input on plant spacing, nutrient requirements and all that other boring stuff.....

I now have all the elements of a great book....Now to see how much Canadian Gardening charges to pimp it...

Before you check on how much CG charges to pimp, maybe you should start by kissing my knee jerk reaction .... ahem!... you should get my input on the boring stuff like spacing, nutrient requirements and all that other stuff.
Guffaw!

[Dumbo]

I'm not above sucking up for profit.

*kisses OGrubbers knee jerk*

Is that like beef jerky?

But in all honesty... you should be writing a book.

[Dumbo]

So I re-read the review again for this book. Although she says she is growing this year round the book review says "harvesting". Which, I guess, is different from what the author says.

So based on this book review, I think you are all wrong. It seems lettuce, leeks, shallots and other stuff will be just fine at -30 as I bend down in the snow to pick them from my cold frame, or under the leaf pile in the case of carrots. "You just need to open your eyes".

So who here is going to buy the book and settle this once and for all? I need to know the answer.

It has to be all in the "type" of plant that is important.

For example, the link that was pasted above for us by CdnChelsea makes note that the type is the key factor in this, which makes sense.

Since this book clearly shows her lettuce leafs will be touching the glass on the cold frame, it must be a uber-cold resistant species.

I only did one fast search for a type of cold resistant lettuce and found this:
http://www.thompson-morgan.com/vegetabl ... king/447TM

Arctic King!

You plant it in October and I guess you pick it in Feb when it's -30.

So now I need to find -30 leek.

I'm still not sure why the ground doesn't freeze for her. Must be some type of magnifying glass effect with the cold frame glass that will allow me to dig up shallots, carrots and leeks when it's -30.

EDIT:
It seems that an old time trick is to put 1.5-feet of rotting manure under a layer of soil for winter in order to generate heat for the cold frame:
Source: http://www.humeseeds.com/falwint.htm

[CdnChelsea]

Perhaps the cold frame is deeper than it looks. Could be 1/2 of the frame is sunk into the ground giving the plants more protection.
How far down does frost go?

I dunno.....


edit: My stepfather used to put manure under and around his cold frame to keep it warmer. Bales of straw outlined the frame too.

[Dumbo]

Could be 1/2 of the frame is sunk into the ground giving the plants more protection.

Yeah... this is possible. I was just reading about that.

I guess if you use some type of rotting manure for heat 2 feet below ground level, the frame "should" encompass this.

But frost level here is 4-feet. So I'm not sure how this all works with depth, manure and so forth.

The straw thing makes sense for a wind break and maybe some insulation. I didn't read this anywhere. Good idea!

EDIT:
Hmm Frost level, per Environment Canada, is actually more.

Fence post depth is 4-feet. This depth is used to prevent heaving. People refer to this as the frost level. But when I look here http://www.urecon.com/applications/muni ... below.html and here http://msdssearch.dow.com/PublishedLite ... age=GetDoc it seems that frost level is closer to 6 feet.

So final answer: I don't know. Minimum 4 feet. Maybe more or less depending where in Canada you are.