Coldframes for Wintering Plants 193 



spinach. This was transplanted closely in rows in time to be at the best 

 development in November. It keeps in perfect condition for use all through 

 the winter, and attains a quality never found in outdoor spinach. When 

 it is removed, the ground is entirely occupied by the cauliflower. 



The last space of five sashes is occupied with sweet peas in rows two 

 feet apart. The seed was put in early in October, so that the plants were 

 five or six inches high at the beginning of winter. They remain dormant 

 until spring, when they grow slowly. Here and in the cauliflower and rose 

 spaces the soil is two feet below the glass. As the vines grow, short brush 

 is used to support them until the glass is reached, when the sashes are removed. 

 The plants will stand light freezing without injury. The rows are then 

 carefully set with tall brush, and the finest of fine blooms come about the 

 middle of May. The flowering will continue until the earliest outdoor blooms 

 are ready. At no other season are the sweet peas so much appreciated. 



As space is made vacant by the removal of lettuce, seeds of lettuce, 

 beets, cauliflower, cabbage, cucumbers, and muskmelons in pots, and other 

 things, are put in for the plants to be set outside for early use. Flowering 

 annuals may also be started. 



With greenhouses devoted to flowers and vegetables, the writer has 

 found that these coldframes "pay" better than any other space under glass. 

 Coldframes may be on any scale desired, from the three or four sashes of 

 the beginner to the market gardener's hundreds. The writer once asked 

 a market gardener who grew lettuce very extensively how he could afford 

 to pay such heavy rental. He repHed: "You see those frames. Every 

 eight inches square of their space has six five-cent nickels in a little pile in 

 the groimd. I rake them out each season. You can figure it for yourself. " 



The labour in caring for coldframes is but slight, but the requisite atten- 

 tion they must have. This consists almost entirely of two things — water and 

 ventilation. They must have air on pleasant or sunny days, and they must 

 have water when that is necessary. Too frequent watering is very injurious. 



For extremely cold weather protection is advisable. Covers made 

 of tongued-and-grooved pine boards, one for each sash, are the most 

 convenient and durable. J\Iats made of straw are w^armer, but these get 

 soaked with rain and then freeze into immanageable nuisances. Straw 

 mats with board covers are the best of all devices. 



A sandy loam, with plenty of well-rotted manure, is the best soil for 

 frames. 



