Cold Climate Gardening

When I’m thinking of building a garden project, the first book I turn to for ideas and inspiration is Classic Garden Structures by Jan and Michael Gertley. I’ve read and leafed through many books on making and building objects for the garden but this one remains my favorite. Beyond their inherent usefulness, all of the projects are good looking, well-designed, and a pleasure to own and use. They are simple enough to be doable with only a few that are really challenging. I’m still thinking I might be able to build my dream greenhouse someday.

The Gertleys have a way of taking many common garden objects and making them extraordinary. Ornamental molding on tomato cages may sound peculiar but when you’ve seen how the Gertleys use it you will wonder why it isn’t commonly done. Many of the structures have finials, end caps, and posts with ornamental flourishes but instead of looking fey or twee you will be saying yes! to yourself as you’re reading.

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Here are plans for another cold frame. This one is from Canadian Gardening Magazine and comes with a very helpful chart of which vegetables and herbs would benefit from being grown in a cold frame in either the spring or fall.

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Just came across the November/December 2002 issue of Organic Gardening, and on pages 34-35 they had plans for the mother of all coldframes. (Unfortunately, I couldn’t find the plans on the Organic Gardening website, so you’ll have to find the issue at a library and photocopy it.) The author, David Wann, and his neighbor designed “a frame that could deliver fresh food straight through our harsh Colorado winter. Our plan of attack was to give it a sheltered spot oriented directly south, sheath it in insulation, sink it several inches below ground level . . . and equip it with thermal mass–basically, water-filled milk jugs–to store solar energy.” The coldframe is built around the dimensions of a discarded …

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