Cold Frame Garden

A traditional home made cold frame

In agriculture and gardening, a cold frame is a transparent-roofed enclosure, built low to the ground, used to protect plants from cold weather. The transparent top admits sunlight and prevents heat escape via convection that would otherwise occur, particularly at night. Essentially, a cold frame functions as a miniature greenhouse season extension device.

Historically cold frames were built to be used in addition to a heated greenhouse. The name, itself, exemplifies the distinction between the warm greenhouse and the unheated cold frame. They were frequently built as part of the greenhouse's foundation brickwork along the southern wall (in northern latitudes). This allowed seeds to be germinated in the greenhouse and then easily moved to the attached cold frame to be hardened-off before final planting outside.

Cold frames are found in home gardens and in vegetable farming. They create microclimates that provide several degrees of air and soil temperature insulation, and shelter from wind. In cold-winter regions, these characteristics allow plants to be started earlier in the spring, and to survive longer into the fall and winter. They are most often used for growing seedlings that are later transplanted into open ground, and can also be a permanent home to cold-hardy vegetables grown for autumn and winter harvest.

Cold frame construction is a common home or farm building project, although kits and commercial systems are available. A traditional plan makes use of old glass windows: a wooden frame is built, about one to two feet tall, and the window placed on top. The roof is often sloped towards the winter sun to capture more light, and to improve runoff of water, and hinged for easy access. Clear plastic, rigid or sheeting, can be used in place of glass. An electric heating cable, available for this purpose, can be placed in the soil to provide additional heat.

One of the advantages of using a cold frame is that you can raise a huge variety of crops from seed through to maturity within the frame - so it's possible to have vegetable crops ahead of their normal season when they are extremely expensive to buy. Some crops suitable for growing in a cold frame include lettuces, parsley, salad onions, spinach, radishes and turnips etc. One vegetable crop can occupy the whole of a cold frame or you can grow a combination of crops so that they mature in rotation - so you'll get a wide range of different vegetables throughout the year from one cold frame.

Basic build cold frame

Container garden or Pot gaden

Container garden on front porch

Container gardening is the practice of growing plants exclusively in containers instead of planting them in the ground. Pots, traditionally made of terracotta but now more commonly plastic, and windowboxes have been the most commonly seen. Small pots are commonly called flowerpots. In some cases, this method of growing is used for ornamental purposes. This method is also useful in areas where the soil or climate is unsuitable for the plant or crop in question. Using a container is also generally necessary for houseplants. Limited growing space can also make this option appealing to the gardener.

Many types of plants are suitable for the container, including decorative flowers, herbs, cacti,vegetables, and small trees. There are many advantages to growing plants in containers, namely:

• Less risk of soil-borne disease
• Virtually eliminate weed problems
• Mobile plants gives more control over moisture, sunlight & temperature

Containers range from simple plastic pots, teacups to complex automatic-watering irrigation systems. This flexibility in design is another reason container gardening is popular with growers. They can be found on porches, front steps, and in urban locations, on rooftops. 

Sub-Irrigated Planters (SIP) are a form of container gardening.

Repotting

Repotting is the action of placing an already potted plant into a larger or smaller pot. A pot that fits a plant's root system better is normally used. Plants are usually repotted according to the size of their root system. Most plants need to be repotted every few years, because they become "pot-bound" or "root-bound."

This large container garden is used for testing plants intended for use in containers