March & April Gardens

Due to the lack of space we have in the
Garden Centre, we have to move and
rotate our stock around according to the
seasons, so sometimes it is difficult to keep
up with what is on the shop floor. I have been
looking at some cold frames recently, and it
made me think how growing techniques that
were once commercially viable are now only
really used in domestic situations; it also
made me smile when I thought about the
health and safety considerations of our youth!
Cold frames, for those not in the know, are
essentially a mini-greenhouse, protecting
plants from the worst of the weather; they
do not offer the protection of a greenhouse
but night-time protection from frosts in late
spring and are generally unheated.

My Dad was a great believer in cold frames,
and I have to admit they do a fantastic job
at hardening off plants. But being told, as a
young lad between the ages of probably 8
and 16, to go and cover up the cold frames on
most nights in April and May with my brother
did nothing to endear them to me. And
like any production system that was labour
intensive, irrespective of its effectiveness, it
has been consigned to history in commercial
horticultural situations. The sheets of glass,
around 5’6” x 2’6” and framed with a wooden
surround were traditionally known as ‘Dutch
Lights’. The walls of the cold frames were
about 2’ high at the back and 18” at the front,
and were all sited on a south facing slope to
capture the sun.

Every evening (as Dad was a complete pessimist
about impending frosts) two of us, any combination
from Mum, Dad, Ian and I, but invariably the two
kids, would face each other across the stacks of
lights, hold an end each and shuffle sideways along
the frames, putting down the glass sheets until the
entire frame had a lid of glass. There were six
frames each with about 30 ‘lights’, it took about 30
minutes to do the lot and usually coincided with
Grange Hill or Blue Peter on the ‘Telly’. As we had
no video recorder and instant pause on the sky
remote was light years away, you can imagine how
popular this chore was! Then, the next morning it
would all be done in reverse! Sometimes we had
to rush out and ‘cover up’ if hail was forecast as we
did not want the plant leaves to be ‘bruised’ and, if
it was cold, we would just lift one end of the frames
and wedge a brick under it to allow for ventilation
but still cover the plants.

On more than one occasion we had to go out in
a howling gale and tie string around the stacks of
frames to stop them blowing away; I dread to think
of how a cold frame risk assessment using glass
would look today. Despite all these negatives, cold
frames are a fantastic way of growing plants, both
for hardening off in the spring and also, in particular,
for growing melons and strawberries in the summer.
The polycarbonate lids are much safer than glass
and the timber sides offer insulation against cold
weather, so if you have room for one, they are a
great way to get growing.

Not Just A Garden Centre Finedon Road, Burton Latimer Northants, NN15 5QA

Only minutes from J10 off the A14 and midway between Kettering and Wellingborough

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