using a cold frame

[Alison]

Here's a really ignorant question: apologies.
I have got two cold frames, which I got cheap when I bought the greenhouse. I haven't assembled them yet. I am thinking of putting them on the ground just outside the greenhouse, where it is stony, very weedy and couch-grassy.
I have never used a cold frame, and I'm not quite sure how to put it to best advantage.
Do I dig up the soil within the frame, and plant things direct into it? Or does one use it more for putting plants in pots in it (in which case presumably I don't have to bother to try to cultivate the ground underneath the frame)?
How do other people use theirs? I read that you can raise early carrots in a cold frame, but do you do this in pots, or plant them direct?
Thanks in advance, Alison.

[richard p]

if you are using it to hold potted plants , cover the base with black plastic, old compost bags will do, to suppress the weed growth from the soil.

[Jenny Green]

I don't have one but I believe they're generally used for pots - hardening off, sowing hardy seeds, overwintering slightly tender plants. If it were me I would just cover the base with something as Richard says, especially if you've got couch grass in the soil.

[peter]

They are excellent for carrots. Fly proof.

[Tigger]

I've got 2 sitting on gravel and another 2 on solid ground. If I need large amounts of water, I use a holding tray inside them. otherwise, it's pots and seed trays on the gravel/ground.

[Angi]

I use mine for growing overwintering lettuce and other salads, then I use it again in the summer months for growing a melon in.

[Bren]

I use mine mainly for pots of cuttings or flower seedlings, I did grow 2 plum tomatoes plants in one of them last year and had a good crop.
Bren

[cevenol jardin]

I have mine two x 4.5ft x 2.5ft on the ground with the soil prepared as if for a seed bed.

In winter early spring
I use mine for growing cold but not frost hardy greens that don't like to be too hot in the polytunnel e.g Winter Spinach.

In spring for sowing brassicas and leeks(lid removed)

In summer
Last year i used one to raise my seedling asparagus (lid removed) and the other to grow forcing chicory (covered light blocked)

They are also great for hardening off fruiting plants as you can adjust the temp for the small number of plants rather than subjecting your whole greenhouse/poly to lower temps.

You can also use them as a double protection siting them undercover in the greenhouse/poly - i've not tried that but i may do this year to grow some citrus from seed.

[John]

In the winter mine are used for growing winter salad such as lettuce, mizuna, mibuna, rocket, radicchio etc. Late winter I start some early potatoes then a bit later I use them for starting things like peas and broad beans in root trainers. During the summer they are used for things like cucumber (ridge type), bush tomato and melon on a bed of straw.

John

[Alison]

many thanks, that's really helpful. I hadn't thought of putting a melon in one, but what a good idea, as the melon goes all over the greenhouse. Could the melon grow in a large pot, or should I dig up the ground?
Alison.

[Angi]

I always plant melons straight into the ground, having first prepared a mound of compost and soil as you would for squashes etc.

[arthur e]

Alison from personal experience, If you have not got access to your cold frames 24/7 so you can open or close the top at very short notice you will find you will have cooked or frozen anything that you put in there for protection. I think cold frames were designed for big gardens that had permanent gardeners looking after them and as such were a good idea but getting up in the middle of the night when you wake up in a sweat remembering you did'nt close the lid and there is a frost in the air or you are at the shops when the sun comes out and you remember you forgot to open the frame, Just not worth the hassle unless anyone else knows different.
Grumpy old Arthur e