Gardening with Hotbed and Coldframe 
THE MANY ADVANTAGES OF FRAMES IN DEVELOPING THE SATISFACTORY GARDEN-CONSTRUC¬ 
TION AND THE PREPARATION OF PROPER BEDS—THE VALUE OF LATE PLANTING UNDER GLASS 
by F. F. Rockwell 
Photographs by R. S. Lemmon, H. W. Porch and Others 
T HE “frames"—the coldframe and its artificially heated coun¬ 
terpart, the hotbed — are ordinarily looked upon as a garden 
adjunct the main purpose of which is to get plants started a month 
or two earlier in the spring, so that certain crops in the garden 
may be forwarded to that extent. In this case the sash are used 
only for about three months in the year and lie idle for the rest of 
the time. But where one wishes to get the maximum results from 
his garden space and garden equipment, such half-efficient man¬ 
agement should be changed, as the frames may be used to advan¬ 
tage for seven or eight months in the year instead of three. This 
is especially desirable where the garden space is limited, as it is in 
the great majority of 
suburban places; and, 
furthermore, it is not 
only a matter of hav¬ 
ing more garden 
produce than could 
otherwise be grown, 
hut having it at a sea¬ 
son when it is espe¬ 
cially valuable — such 
things as lettuce, rad¬ 
ishes, green onions, 
spinach which you 
have usually not be¬ 
fore May and June, 
during the winter 
months; and such 
things as beans, cu- 
cumber s, m usk- 
melons, etc., which 
ordinarily you do not 
have until well along 
toward the end of the 
season. 
In planning to 
make your frames a 
really important part 
of your garden op¬ 
erations, two things 
must be provided first 
of all — soil which is 
naturally thoroughly drained and will not become wet and soggy 
through the winter and early spring months, and an abundance 
of water to use in dry weather when it is needed. You must 
realize at the outset that coldframe gardening is a highly intensi¬ 
fied form of gardening, and that therefore to be successful with 
it you must have the factors for success, of which water is, of 
course, a vitally important one, well under control. At the same 
time, it is just as well for you to realize that the returns from it 
on the basis of the amount of space allotted to it will be much 
higher than from any other part of your garden. For instance, 
outdoors you set your rows of lettuce twelve to fifteen inches 
apart and set out the heads or thin them to about twelve inches. 
In the coldframes fifty heads are set to a space three by six feet 
(eight inches each way), from which space outside you would 
get eighteen or twenty heads. 
The equipment for intensive gardening of this sort is a little 
more diversified, but on the whole much less expensive than ordi¬ 
narily supposed. You are probably familiar with the ordinary 
coldframe—a box or frame with sides of wood covered with a 
standard glass sash (size three by six feet), and provided with a 
wooden shutter or a straw mat for covering in extreme cold 
weather. The equipment which I am going to recommend con¬ 
tains sash of three distinct sorts, each of the three especially 
valuable for its special use. In the first place, there are the 
double light sash; these cost a little more than the others, for 
they are made with a double layer of glass with an air space be¬ 
tween them which, 
being an efficient non¬ 
conductor, answers 
the purpose of the 
m at or shutter in 
keeping out the cold, 
but with this great 
advantage, that at the 
same time it will let 
all the sunshine in. 
The double light sash 
is a distinct and valu¬ 
able improvement in 
the way of garden 
equipment, and is 
proving wonderfully 
valuable to thousands 
of places. But it is 
when used to supple¬ 
ment sash of the ordi¬ 
nary kind rather than 
to take the place of 
them, that one gets 
the greatest amount 
of service from them. 
Because with the dou¬ 
ble light sash, where 
one has no green¬ 
house, seeds may be 
sown and the plants 
started and grown to 
a size large enough to transplant to the frame under the regular 
sash at a season when, under the old methods, you would just be 
starting them. 
The standard sash, three feet by six in size (and preferably 
having three instead of four rows of glass, as more light is ob¬ 
tained) does not need any description here, as everyone is familiar 
with it; of these, one should have two or three times as many as 
the double sash; and then there are the sash made with light 
wooden frames and covered with protecting cloth; these are not 
nearly so well known nor so largely used as they should be, but 
they will keep ofif several degrees of frost and for many uses will 
answer just as well, and in some cases even better than glass, and, 
furthermore, in severe weather can be used in the place of mats or 
shutters over the glass sash. 
The frames on which the sash are supported may be of inch 
The board frames, higher at the back than in front in order to drain properly, should be 
banked with earth to keep out frost and cold wind 
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