Tag Archives: cold frame

Opening Day at the Homestead

Opening Day! We had beautiful weather yesterday. Low 70s, blue skies, no wind. We took advantage and got quite a lot accomplished.

The first thing we did was to hang our new Bat House!! We wanted one for years and we have a small family of bats here. Here is a link to the bat house post.

Part of ‘Opening  Day” was to bring our hardiest seedlings outside for the first time. We put them in the shade to acclimate them to the outside, or, harden them off. We bring them back inside to the grow lights in the evening.

DSCN9298

We also tended to our cold frame. This has been growing lettuce and spinach all winter and has really taken off in the last few weeks. Carol weeded it and harvested some beautiful spinach for our dinner.

Cold Frame
Cold Frame

We made it from an old kitchen cabinet and storm window, both of which we found in the trash.  When it gets warm, you need to open it.

Home grown spinach for our dinner.
Home grown spinach for our dinner.

After that was the biggest part of “Opening Day”: We opened the Fig Tree! I will put up a post just about the Fig at a later point and link from here.

Fig Tree 2016
Fig Tree 2016

After that we turned the entire compost pile and started a new one. Our trick to composting is adding Alfalfa Meal between layers. Gets it real hot (140 degrees!) and helps to break things down.

More to do tomorrow….