Building Cold Frames at Shadowlands

2 comments

Dear All,

I hope you had a great Christmas, and wish you all a Happy New Year. We had our flight cancelled at CDG Airport, but managed to get to the UK for Christmas.

So now that the festivities are almost over, I am putting some thought into a cold frame complex that I want to put in at Shadowlands. I’m a bit of traditionalist, and like them to have a red-brick base, but I’m toying up about whether to go for the simple slant type or pitched. Either way, I have a spot by the house that is very flat already (a rarity at Shadowlands). It is no South facing unfortunately, but does get about 5 hours of sun per day. I think there is space for about three of them, which should serve all the kitchen needs. Perhaps I’ll do a pitched one in the centre, flanked by two sloping ones.

I’m also minded to try to sort out some sort of irrigation system. The existing bed is actually fed by the gutter drain pipe, but somewhat counter intuitively seems much drier than anywhere else in the garden! Still maybe I can buy, or design a system that will regulate water flow where we have down pours (and we have them!). Perhaps I am over complicating things?

The main issue with the cold frames is the glass. In the UK I would of course just sue recycled windows, which look really nice, but here in Japan, we do not really get them, and I sense I’ll have to make them which will be time consuming, costly, and probably beyond my skills. If I do go that route however, I will probably base the design on a Victorian kitchen garden, such as at Newick Park.

Does anyone have any general advice about constructing cold frames please? The kind of ‘how to avoid making a pig’s ear of it’ advice.

Happy New Year,

ptarotuos

• 31 Dec, 2010
• 3 likes

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