Growing under a frame greenhouse, or cold greenhouse, is of real interest in autumn and winter because it allows cultivation without fear of frost, a decisive advantage for making good progress in the vegetable garden and preparing for the summer season.
With simple frames, it is possible to make the summer last longer, but it is also much simpler to prepare for the return of spring. Also called cold greenhouse cultivationlet’s find out today how grow under frame greenhouse in bad season.
What is a frame greenhouse?
A frame greenhouse is quite a structure simple in form – you can build it yourself if you are a handyman, but which allows you to work more efficiently and for longer in the vegetable garden. As bells or other greenhousesa chassis makes it possible to carry outs early cropss in the bad season, while being protected from bad weather, insects and being a natural anti-slug.
It’s about imagining a crate bottomless which can take more or less any shape or volume.
The structure of a cold greenhouse can be rudimentary © Bildagentur Zoonar GmbH
However, keep in mind that the monks of yesteryear used squares with sides of one meter and twenty centimeters to avoid back pain.
The chassis is then surmounted by a glass plate (always if you are a handyman, an old window or a French window can do the trick) or in plexiglass which lets the brightness and the heat to retain it afterwards. The transparent part is inclined both to allow the evacuation of water, but also to maximize the impact of the sun’s rays.
Also read – Preventing a greenhouse from freezing in winter: an engineer’s simple and ultra-effective tip
Cultivate in a frame greenhouse from the very end of autumn
Depending on the region where you are located, it will be possible to grow certain vegetables later in the season. If you have fallen behind on your vegetable garden and your cold greenhouse is not cluttered, nothing prevents you from planting there, a little too late, what you know you can no longer succeed in the ground. The frame greenhouse can make you win the ten days or two weeks what your plants need.
Generally you can cultivate under frame everything that is grown in the ground, but the shape and volume of your frame will still determine what you can see growing there. Cabbages of all kinds, for example, will benefit from being outside a frame, even if they can of course be placed there. to grow to begin with.
At the end of autumn It will therefore be rustic salads or lamb’s lettuce that you can sow, but also gray shallots, suitable carrots, or even garlic!
Frame with salad in autumn © Peter Turner Photography
A frame is a small structure. He thus resumes the operation and usefulness of a greenhouse classic, but in much smaller volume and without possible access to the interior.
You must therefore be careful that it does not not cold for too longbecause the chassis cools quickly; but it goes the same for heatthe chassis can very quickly become a furnace: watch it closely!
The usefulness of a cold greenhouse when winter is here
With winter comes the first extreme cold for us and for the plants. You must then pay attention to what you have sown in your frame and possibly cover it at night (fleece fabric covers, etc.) to protect it from the cold, and avoid freezing which would be fatal to your crops.
When winter is well underway, towards the end of January and beginning of February, you can then start sow your leeks, carrots, white onions, radishes and other lettuces among the (non-ever-bearing) strawberries that you will have already planted in December!
Orient your chassis(es) due south for obvious reasons of heat and light accumulation. But above all, anticipate interventions on your chassis during cold periods by positioning it at an easily accessible place. Covering it or uncovering it, as well as opening and closing it, will be less restrictive if you can access it quickly.
I harvest my vegetables all winter: When to sow? when to plant? 25 vegetable sheets
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Techniques for having good harvests in winter, advice for growing and preserving each vegetable. A very complete and richly illustrated work, so that you no longer forget that a winter vegetable garden can be prepared in spring!
Article updated
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