Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["TradingPostPaul" <tradingpost@riseup.net>]

How about a string of Xmas lights in a cold frame? We picked up some
planning to try this. Has anyone done this?

paul tradingpost@lobo.net

*********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********

On 12/28/2007 at 12:26 PM yarrow@sfo.com wrote:

>My garden has a dozen or so plastic gallon water bottles with the 
>bottoms cut off. I put a stick in the center to keep each one from 
>blowing away or falling over, and I use them to cover seedlings. From 
>about Oct-Nov to Apr-May, the birds are eager to eat every new green 
>leaf, including self-seeded kales, so if I want winter vegs, I need 
>to cover them. A few years ago, when my first winter broccoli crop 
>was getting munched, I used lots and lots of Sluggo (the nontoxic 
>iron-based stuff), thinking it was slugs. But then, while I was in 
>the garden, I saw birds hopping onto (what was left of) the broccoli 
>stems and taking small bites. (I didn't use Sluggo at all this past 
>year.) Sometimes I see slugs or snails inside the tiny "greenhouses."
>
>Last year I took the covers off the snap peas when they were 3 feet 
>high, thinking they were big enough to fend for themselves, and in a 
>couple days they were eaten down to bare stems. So now the pea 
>trellis stays under row cover all winter and spring.
>
>This year the birds started eating the fennel/finocchio when it was a 
>foot high, so I covered them up again.
>
>The clear plastic bottles are also good for protecting new seedlings. 
>I live in a year-round gardening climate (Calif.), but even when the 
>temperature does not get down to freezing, a layer of frost covers 
>the plants most mornings in the winter. The bottles keep the frost 
>from settling on the plants, protect them from the wind, and keep 
>them a little warmer during the day. I always leave the tops/caps off 
>the bottles so that air can circulate, and this does not allow enough 
>frost in to make a difference. When the plants outgrow the cloches, I 
>uncover them (seems to be ok so far for kohlrabi and broccoli raab) 
>or else add row cover or something similar.
>
>In Iowa, if you have a small garden (as opposed to a farm) and don't 
>have a greenhouse or cold frame, look up http://wintersown.org/
>-- it's a method popularized by a Long Island gardener who was eager 
>to plant seeds when the ground is frozen. She uses any plastic 
>container, punches holes in the bottom for drainage and in the top 
>for air, fills it with soil, and plants seeds. If the container does 
>not come with a clear top, she uses clear plastic. She even plants 
>tomatoes this way!