Probably the most economical and service¬ 
able structure is one made of concrete. 
With some boards, cement and sand you 
can make one yourself 
means the warm temperature of summer, when the weather out¬ 
side is really freezing. In the latitude of New York we can plant 
our hotbeds in February but it is not safe to start a coldframe 
before the end of March. 
It is idle to deny that hotbeds require care. At night the sash 
must be covered with mats to keep out the cold and in the morn¬ 
ing these must be removed to admit the sunlight. Ventilation is 
also important. 
Here are some of the ways in which a hotbed or coldframe will 
be most useful: 
To start seeds of plants and flowers months before they could 
be planted out-of-doors. This in itself would be no great advan¬ 
tage if the season of bloom were simply moved forward a few 
weeks, ending that much sooner. In many cases, however, it 
means that you will get bloom where otherwise there might be 
none—with cosmos, petunias, verbenas, ageratum, stocks, and 
many others. 
To winter the plants that freezing weather would kill, such as 
tender hydrangeas, geraniums, tea roses and various bedding 
plants. 
To force such plants as asparagus or rhubarb to bear while 
the ground outside is still frozen. 
To take care of seedlings that have been started in greenhouses 
or indoors in window-boxes. 
To have green vegetables all winter, such as chard, parsley, 
lettuce, and spinach. And to start vegetable seeds a month or 
two before they can be planted in the open. 
In order to avoid the necessity of using mats or shutters to 
It is well to have a 
cheap thermometer 
in the hotbed to 
keep track of the 
temperature. 
You are now 
ready to plant. 
There is such a dif¬ 
ference of opinion 
as to the care of 
hotbeds and cold- 
frames that only 
the most general 
directions can be 
given. It may be 
said that the object 
of both is to dupli- 
c a t e by artificial 
another use for your frame is to plant in August seeds of perennials 
whicn, with care, will grow large enough to be transplanted to their 
permanent quarters in the fall, to bloom next year 
The compost of leaves and fresh horse manure, before going into the 
bed, must be turned over several times at intervals of a few days, 
in order to work off the surplus heat 
protect the glass sash at night, some of the builders manufacture 
double-light sash in which an air space between the two pieces 
of glass acts as an insulator, keeping the cold out and the heat 
in. The advantage of this kind of sash is that mats are not neces¬ 
sary. 
To prepare a coldframe, first spade up the soil to a depth of a 
foot, working it over and over until all the lumps are broken up 
and it is fine and mellow. Some well rotted manure should be 
worked through the soil to make it rich. 
Where a coldframe is used to grow vegetables that will ulti¬ 
mately be planted in the open ground, to avoid the danger of 
disturbing the roots in transplanting, it is well to plant the seeds 
in small paper flowerpots, berry-boxes or even small paper boxes. 
The seedsmen will supply paper pots that can easily be taken 
apart. 
A very convenient type of coldframe that is similar in its use 
to the bell-glasses of the French gardener is the so-called “melon 
frame.” It is much smaller than the regulation coldframe and 
may readily be moved from place to place. Melon frames may 
be set about through the garden wherever we ultimately intend to 
have hills of melons, squash or cucumbers and the seeds forced 
in the very place where they will ultimately grow, without the 
necessity of transplanting. By the use of one of these frames a 
neighbor of mine has had ripe cucumbers by July qth, yet the 
old rule is not to plant cucumber seed until June 20th. 
Growing plants need not only sunlight but also air. A plant 
that has been growing in the warm, moist atmosphere of a hot¬ 
bed would, if suddenly moved to the open ground where the tem¬ 
perature may be twenty degrees lower, soon wither and die. For 
this reason a hardening process must be followed by raising the 
(Continued on page 194) 
If ycu are not enough of a carpenter to build the frame vourself you 
can buy one in this “knock-down” form and readily put it together 
March, 1911 
HOUSE AND GARDEN 
