What would you do with this ?

Need to know the best time to plant?

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Ricard with an H
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This bed has two fitted lids that are glazed with twin-wall polycarbonate. It faces east, this spring I used it successfully as a cold-frame and intend to do the same next spring to bring-on whatever i'm to grow.

What would you do with it from now-untill-then ? There is some claggy soil in the bottom and I just started tipping some grit sand in as a base for that fabric you use to keep weeds down then it occurred to me there may be an over-winter use if I improve the soil with sand, a little peat and some compost.

Garlic ? Onion ? What do you think ? Anyone with a good-ideas-department ?
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Monika
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Neither garlic nor overwintering onions need protection by a frame, RicH. You could use the frame for hardy lettuce or herbs like parsley which would appreciate a bit of shelter but, no doubt, other "forumers" will have much better ideas.

If you do sow directly into ground, bear in mind that this might restrict your use of the frame for early sowings next spring.
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Primrose
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If you're a salad eater, I'd be tempted to sow some endive. You can get various varieties - the frizzie leaved types as well as the flat leafed varieties. I find them fairly hardy and if you sow now you should have some to keep you going through the winter until spring. You can sow direct into the ground or in fairly shallow pots which can be moved around if you need the soil for direct sowing of other things.
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Ricard with an H
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Monika wrote:Neither garlic nor overwintering onions need protection


Ahhh-yes, just protection from opportunists. Thanks Monika.

Primrose wrote:If you're a salad eater, I'd be tempted to sow some endive.
I didn't think salad leaves could cope so i'll give that a try and I hadn't even thought about my parsley, sage and chives.

Right, i'm not going to prepare the soil in the frame for direct sowing, i'll save the little digging I have left in me for getting some sand into that claggy soil for the garlic and onion.

I can't remember who it was but one of the forum members advised me to do a late sowing of French bean because all my previous ones were failing. The result is fantastic and i'm so-so encouraged, i'm picking beans daily and starting to freeze a few.

Lovely, and thank-you whoever it was. I have so much work to do on this plot I was beginning to worry about wasting time growing stuff and getting behind on the other chores. September already, I still have outer walls to wash down, window frame paint to repair and double glazing to replace. The outer Pembrokeshire banks still haven't been cut.

Another annual task is picking seed from the wildflower so I can germinate and spread, oxeye daisy, cornflower and corn marigold all grow wild here. Cornflower and marigold are very difficult to reinstate but they happily re-seed in their chosen spot every year. A lot of people neither remember or have even seen corn marigold.

Thanks for the encouragement.
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Primrose
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If it gives you any encouragement, the mixed varieties of endive I sowed in October survived the winter under cloches, even when we had snow.
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Ricard with an H
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Just ordered garlic and onion, I couldn't find endive so I ordered some mixed herb and leaves until I find endive.

The cold frame is very warm, I can sit pots or those re-fillable grow-bag things (In the photo) onto two inch kingspan insulation.

I'm encouraged. :D
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Nature's Babe
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you could overwinter some peas in guttering and slide into the soil as soon as it warms up perhaps try some spinach if you like it.
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PLUMPUDDING
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All the Chinese greens do well over winter with a bit of protection - you could get a crop of radishes before winter too.
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Ricard with an H
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What do you call, "Protection". I can't raise the level of the beds and I don't even know if fleece will survive a winter here but I have fleece and i'll give it a go.

It isn't that cold, it's the wind. The sheep are lambing in January, often in snow but we don't get that much snow.

Radish, another crop I didn't think about and I love radish. Fantastic, I need to build another bed now. :D

At least the fox doesn't attack the veg plot, not many around these parts manage to outwit the fox, saw one eating blackberry this morning when I was walking the dog. Both my dog and the fox sucking berries off the brambles within 20/30 metres of each other. :D
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PLUMPUDDING
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I just meant the protection of your excellent cold frames. Chinese veg, lettuce, swiss chard etc are quite hardy but do better over winter if they don't get too wet, blown about or squashed by snow.
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Swiss chard is also quite hardy. May be worth a try if you can sow it now while the soil is still fairly warm.
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Ricard with an H
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PLUMPUDDING wrote:I just meant the protection of your excellent cold frames.


Ahh, I see. I'm now committed and will have three of those fabric growbag-type things in-line for sowing seed that I have yet to get. It looks like an on-line purchase. All my local sources have dried up on the popular seed and the geographic distances between garden centres means it's cheaper by post.

I still haven't decided about the compost, I had some success with 50/50 mixture of peat and the New Horizon, what I also learnt this year is that other things can be responsible for failure. A packet of salad leaves sown into a mixture and not one shoot appeared, this also happened with some discounted marigold seeds I bought and I know from my experience with wild flower seed that they have a potency period that lapses.

Are seed producers reliable ? It's another subject and maybe has already been discussed so i'll do a search.
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williamraed
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According to me, The onion is the best for protection by your frame than garlic. So you can planting the onion by a frame. No doubt that other farmers will have much better ideas about this thing.
grow light is essential for indoor growing
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