Spuds and coldframes

I had some potatoes that were getting too old to eat so I figured I would plant them. The thing is that it was in mid-January. Just a bit early to plant spuds in this neighborhood. Cold frames to the rescue. And hotcaps. Well I used milk jugs with the bottoms cut off for hotcaps. But I was short one jug. So I used a shoebox on one plant. The plant with the shoebox thrived while the plants with the milk jugs suffered frost damage. Serendipity!! Cardboard insulates better than plastic. So the picture with the blue shoebox shows the plant that is doing well and the other shows the plant that suffered damage.

Now for a word about the cold frames. They are both made from windows I picked up from someone's trash. A quick trim with the saw and a few screws and I have two coldframes for no money. Get the idea ? My Irish ancestors would be proud. I plan to modify the frames. There is no need for glass on the north side. I plan to remove it and replace it with wood from pallets. That gives me more glass to build more frames.

Do you want to build a coldframe ? Call a local window contractor. You can look in the Yellow Pages or go to one of the home improvement chains and get a list of the people they use as window and door replacement contractors. I'll bet they have old windows and glass doors to get rid of. They have to pay to dispose of them. They will be happy to give them away. The source is where you find it. We need to stop discarding usefull things and make the most of our resources.