Kitchen Garden Forum

I have a 4'wide raised bed (18" high) and am considering making a hotbed on part of it. Should I use cow or horse manure, and what depth and layers should I use? I have some old capillary matting that could be used too. I can put a 'cold frame' atop it so it would become a frame heated the old-fashioned way. Or, a put up a temporary cloche with hoops and polythene. All for keeping plants (in containers) frost-free later in the winter (we're supposed to have a cold winter). Any idea how long it would stay hot enough to keep the (4'x6'Access) frame frost-free? weeks? Any sage advice appreciated!

Hi - I am intending to construct a hotbed this year, and found the following site when doing a search - there seems to be some useful information here:

www.holon.se/garden/howto/hotbed_en.shtml

I plan to use my homemade wooden-sided coldframe instead of the breeze blocks they use,, but imagine that the eventual results will be similar.

Best of luck with the project!
Cheers, Lyn.

Thanks for the hotbed reference page, I'm now tempted to have a go!

You might find the new HDRA site useful as there's a whole section on hot beds. There's a link to it from the Home page.