The Cold Frame and a Lettuce Harvest

Besides protecting the garden from the chickens and swarms of grasshoppers and other bugs, temperature extremes have been another gardening foe to factor into the equation. Today, for instance, is forecast to be in the upper 80s while yesterday morning was just around freezing.

So, in order to give our cold-hardy greens a chance at surviving those extremes, Stewart set out to make a suitable cold frame. There were a couple of initial models that he wasn’t crazy about and then this one, which has proven fruitful, despite a few more changes we will be making in subsequent frames.

In this frame we planted collards, lettuce, cilantro, parsley, and recently some onions and yet-to-be-germinated purslane. My goal is to be planting a few seeds every day in the hopes that the successive plantings will bring a slow but steady influx of greens.

This past week we were able to begin harvesting some of the lettuce for salads. The variety is a wonderfully hardy lettuce called mignonette bronze. We have seen it be eaten down by chickens or even die back from a frost and come back again when the conditions are right. We’re fans of anything that can take a beating and keep coming back.

This cold frame still isn’t ideal. Just yesterday the wind blew it open while we were away and when I returned I found the chickens demolishing half of the collard greens. It can be frustrating when this happens, but I believe we are being taught diligence and care in our food production duties.

These trials, compounded with the other losses of fruit trees and gardens, has certainly taught us who gives the increase and how inept at this whole food-growing thing we really are. Every single seed we plant, water, and watch grow seems more miraculous than the last through this process.

And we are hopeful that by watching our learning curve, our children might recognize the beauty of working diligently and trusting that the Lord will always provide, in His way and His time.