Winter Lettuce Cold-frame

2 week old sprouts reaching for NM sky

Nothing beats the crisp crunch of salad greens to balance out all the preserved meat and dried carbohydrates of a local winter diet-- actually, nothing really beats a salad at any time of the year. But back to late winter. Unfortunately, the co-op's greens aren't always that crunchy (please become a member and buy more frequently!) and the organic boxes of salad at the big stores aren't cheap in several respects. Either way, this time of year I can't get enough fresh leafy greens in my body and I find a convenient way is to grow your own.

The warming mass of the rock wall and neighbors garage

So in that theme, I recently remodeled my window-topped cold frame boxes of the past several years into a single, taller cold frame, the general dimensions of a storm-door. To be 'green,' and conserve some cash, I built the frame (the older ones had both broken their windows- at my errant hand.) with 100% recycled materials I had on hand (the screws were new, but recycled from a previous projects budget: the wood came from mom's old fence, the windows and glass panes I seem to collect cheaply without purpose, the storm door came off my house, and soil with my hens compost finished off the materials list. The storm door has clear windows on all but the western 20% of the lid, a large glass window fills the eastern end, and two slim windows fill the front, southern-exposed side of the box. The box, with diligent daily opening and nightly covering with fleece when below 20, keeps the soil temperature around 62 degrees, compared to diurnal fluctuations of between 42-52 for similar unprotected soil.

62 degree warm Romaine roots and sprouts

I planted various varieties of lettuce on Valentines day, including Bibb, Romaine, Black-seeded Simpson, and the ubiquitous Mesculun mix- colorful when young, and. . . exotic, almost scary when it bolts! First raking a rough micro-furrow pattern with a tined rake, I broadcast the seed, and smoothed over the low furrows with my palm. Within a week, the seeds nearest the 40 watt light were sprouting, and all the rest within the next week; the warmth really helps. I also planted 100 onion sets to harvest as scallions for salads and soups along the back wall, painted white for higher reflectance and an attempt to lower daytime temperatures. The latter triggering the bitter onset to the lettuce's bolt. By the time I post this, the tallest green onions are 5".