Cold framin'

Summer's still months away but it felt like it had already arrived today. Temps in the 70's and gorgeous, gorgeous sunshine. I took the opportunity to build a cold frame with some salvaged windows my dad gave me and 2x material I scrounged from the scrap pile of a construction site. There are numerous plans for building cold frames out there, but the basic construction consists of a box shape frame built with 2x boards with the windows lain on top. Here's what I was working with:

The windows are about 30"x30" and are single-pane. Double-pane would work fine as well. For this cold frame, the windows will sit side by side, so the materials required are 1 piece of 2"x12" at 60", 2 pieces of 2"x12" at 30", and a piece of 2"x8" at 60". Since I'm poor and unemployed, I screwed together 2 pieces of 2"x6" at 60" to substitute for a 2"x12" at the same length. The 2 pieces at 30" are cut so that the board tapers from a width of 11 1/4" (actual width of 2"x12") down to 9 1/8" (the actual width of the 2"x8"). This will allow rain to flow off the panes. The boards are screwed together with some three-inch screws. Four small blocks are screwed onto the inside of the frame 1 3/8" inches (the width of the panes) down from the top. The windows will sit on the blocks and be flush with the top of the frame. Here's the finished product:

A block of wood screwed to the outside of one of the windows will allow you to easily lift it off to access the inside. In my research on seedlings, I read that before planting them in the garden it is beneficial to allow them to sit outside for a few nights to adjust to cooler nighttime temps. The cold frame (if properly insulated) will keep the plants up to 5 degrees warmer than outside the frame. Later on in the season I may directly plant lettuce or other over-wintering varieties within the frame. For now it will serve to acclimatize seedlings before I plant them in their permanent dirt home.