Ultimate upcycle - Building the cold frame

Every year I have treid to grow squash and Reed has tried to grow pumpkins with no success.  We get them all growing and strong in the greenhouse but as soon as we move them outside the wind would take the leafy sails right out of them.  Why not leave them in the greenhouse you ask?  Because they don''t like it in there for very long and they dont set as much produce and the produce rots or they get wilt - a variety of reasons.

This year I decided to build a cold frame off the back of the greenhouse - it was actually two years ago that I decided to build it but just finally got organized and enough time this year.  I started with the storm windows left over from the greenhouse:

I used the wood from a couple of pallets that I needed to recycle, the wood from a mattress box spring I took apart and recycled (the material went to use as row cover - it works great), and I also used some left over t-111 from the greenhouse siding, and an old dock that never got built and was 2x6 pine in 6' lenghts.  I had to buy a few trim pieces to get enough wood to build the window frames and of course I broke one of the windows and had to cut one to fit!  One of my best tricks!

This is the location I chose to build the attached cold frame.  It gets full sun and any wind that blows will be blocked by the wall I built for the frame.

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 Here is the first window in the frame that I built - I will show you why I blocked this particular window on the corners later.  The pallets (blue) behind it are where I pulled some of the wood off of.  Pallets are harder to get apart then they appear - a big portion of my time investment in this project was taking apart pallets!  Worth it though!

I used the angle plywood pieces that came off of the barn shape of the greenhouse for the end wall pieces - they are the perfect angle for the windows below.

I used trim pieces along the back wall of the greenhouse to attach my hinges to and I did have to use strips of the siding pieces in between to get my total length.  It was a blessing as it added support that I would not have otherwise had and avoids sag in the center possibly breaking the windows.

You can see the supports along the sides of the windows and in the back of the cold frame.

 Above you can see the finished cold frame - I had to block the window to the very right so that it cannot be opened all the way and run into the greenhouse window above it which is an opener.  I would have had broken windows on one of the buildings if I hadn't done that.  The center window also opens but it it just high enough to allow the frame section below it to open all the way.  I used hook and eye fasteners to hold the frame sections open and the hook and eye on the most right hand frame section has a piece of wire to give it the distance it needed.

In the above photo you can see where there are some of the staples and fluff from the box spring still attached to one of the window frame boards.  I didnt see a need to remove all the staples.

 

Happy squash plants in the cold frame!

 

I will still have to go back around and place some strips of insulation where not everything meets perfectly so that I can have the season extension that I want.  I also try ot leave it open when it is raining as often as possible so that it gets some of the natural water.

 

Stay tuned for further mattress recycle ideas - mattresses are great to use in the garden!