I'm thinking about making one. I remember my mom used to have one, but I don't remember us using it all that often. Does anyone have one? I really would rather have a greenhouse, but that's not happening any time soon. When would I be able to put stuff in the cold frame? Is it for germinating (I would think it's still too cold), or for hardening? Or what?
at it!
I think they're more for the early spring months (March/April), when you have some warm days, but still the possibility of frost.
Just a
I'm getting 2 windows from my coworker.
I had one that was made from an old window at my old house and looked kind of like this but a bit bigger:
I can't remember where I got it from but it's the stuff you see in the picture here:
Best thing for making a cold frame.
Keep Your Plants All Winter with a Cold Frame | DoItYourself.com
Two hints: replace the glass with fabric or plastic else you'll tend to cook the plants inside plus the glass is really heavy and get an automatic vent like this one:
Automatic Vent Opener
I used this special reinforced plastic fabric in the window because my cats liked to lay across them to sun themselves.
Lawn and Garden Greenhouse Kit
Cold frames are great for starting plants - I'd start my cold weather plants in January and cycle through the rest of my plantings as the weather warmed and the plants were put in the garden. It's also great for hardening off plants you raise in a greenhouse like I did or you buy from a nursery before you put them in their permanent home in the garden.
You can also make a cold frame from an old window and some bales of straw, which I've done many times before the permanent cold frame was built:
Gardening : Other : Cold Frames : Home & Garden Television
Good luck and happy gardening!
Thank you!!! 
I do love to garden and I swear I AM going to have a real one this year again. The flower and herb beds just ain't cutting it. 
You're very welcome.
And the AV is still doing splendidly. I keep checking for blooms but none yet but it's getting BIG.
I'm thinking about making one. I remember my mom used to have one, but I don't remember us using it all that often. Does anyone have one? I really would rather have a greenhouse, but that's not happening any time soon. When would I be able to put stuff in the cold frame? Is it for germinating (I would think it's still too cold), or for hardening? Or what?
I do. Not hard at all. If you're gonna go great guns, get a nice looking scrap bucket for the kitchen counter (they make really nice ceramic ones w/ charcoal filters) and use the biobag liners. Makes kitchen scrap composting MUCH easier and cleaner. I have 3 plastic compost bins around my backyard. That way when I am cutting the grass, I am never too far from a bin. When I cut the front yard, I dump the clippings directly into the garden and around the base of the fruit trees to act as mulch until it decomposes. I also get the horse waste from a friend of mine with horses. Compost it in a pile in the edge of the woods at the back of my property. In addition, I get already composted manure from a farm by the trailer load (they load the trailer with a front end loader). When we moved into the house, our soil was light tan in the area where the garden is. In other words, it was useless for growing. Last year when I plowed it up, I had a couple inches of nice BLACK soil. Where we have the garden is on a slight slope (1' over 30') and the topography of the yard means the natural route for run-off is right thru one end of the garden. So last year I built a 2 sided wall around it with landscaping timbers. The top row of timbers is level and at the high end of the yard it is ground level. I am going to eventually turn the garden into a raised bed by adding compost and whatnot every year.
If you need a large area broken up for this garden, I have a plow for my garden tractor and a tiller.You're very welcome.
Forget the books, search google.
