Hit the Dirt; Transplanting Vegetables

Hit the dirt. Number four. Twenty one thousand ninety two. Hello and welcome to hit the dirt. We're coming into mid-spring now and the ceiling shuffles in full swing. In the germination area with just the pilot light on. They then get moved to the sunny greenhouse. Then it's out to the cold and finally out to the garden. Right now I have ceilings being shuffled about all phases of the springtime rotation and all stages are critical to the ceiling's development. The one which gardeners seem most likely to give an inadequate attention to is the hardening off period. Yet as I mentioned in last week's show that period of adjustment is often very important bright unfiltered sunlight potentially damaging in drying winds. Rapid changes in extremes in air temperature and moisture

reduce nutrient availability and less friable in colder soil. All new realities that most evenings have to face when going from in the greenhouse under the grow lights or on the window sill out to the garden and they can make the transition much more smoothly if they have been properly hardened off. One way to harden ceilings off is to simply bring them outside to a protected spot for longer and longer periods of time each day over the course of a couple of weeks. But this can be a lot of work if one grows lots of flats of transplants as I do. That is why I prefer to use a cold frame cold frames or basically a box of some sort with a lid that will let in light. Usually either of glass or plastic and that can be lifted up to let in air. A good cold frame that gets the job done doesn't have to be fancy or expensive and can be put together by almost anyone. For example a waxy cardboard box or for hay bales topped off with an old window could suffice. Or if one would like it to be a bit more durable than the old window could be hinged to a box constructed of

scrap wood. The box doesn't have to be airtight or insulated just so long as it provides protection from the wind. The hinges make it easily easy to adjust from how much air to let in the cold frame should be vented wide on sunny days especially if there is only a light breeze where it is a warm day on cloudy cold days. The glaze laid can be left all the way down on the box. It is a good idea to have an old blanket or sleeping bag on hand to throw over the cold particularly frosty nights when the temperature plunges suddenly. Of course one can get fancy too. I like to build my cold brains with the backside which is higher than the front side so the glazing is angled toward the sun to let in more light and reduce shading from the front wall. My current models are constructed of rock resistant native cedar and because I built them large for about 8 feet I opted for sheets of double walled polycarbonate which is very strong but at the same time very lightweight. This glazing is more insulated

than single pane glass lets through just as much of the available sunlight. But mine are still homemade and definitely look at if you're willing to spend some bucks and want to real fancy cold frame. Many garden supply catalogs offer models made of red wood or aluminum crafted to be tight fitting with glazing that can be cranked open or better yet is equipped with an automatic solar vent opener. When considering how big to make this old look old. Consider not only your needs in terms of the quantity of seedlings you grow but also ease of use bigger models often involve more stressful bending and reaching to place and pick up heavy flats in the back half of the frame. Sometimes it may make more sense to use two smaller frames or multiple frames would also allow one to more easily coordinate different treatments in terms of ventilation and exposure to different sets of flats there at the same time. For instance a flat of tomatoes which has just been brought out of the cold should probably be given more tender treatment than the flat of Callie flower which has been out in the cold frame for a week and a half and will be set out in the Garden in just a few days.

One last consideration when thinking about size is that you might want to build the coal to be the same with as your garden beds. That way you can put handles on it and use it as a season extender in the fall. By placing it over for example a patch of greens and keeping them from freezing. In that case it might more appropriately be called a warm frame. With such a setup you could be eating fresh salad right through early winter what with the scarcity of garden fresh greens in Maine in late December. You just might then decide to start calling it a worth its weight in gold frame. But whatever you call it a cold cream is a handy piece of gardening equipment that can make the spring time seedling shuffle one smooth dance. Well bye for now and happy planting.