Early Spring Cold-Frame Garden
A 6×3 head-start bed: two cold frames plus the frost-hardy crew — spinach, mâche, radishes, and dwarf peas — sown while it still freezes.
About This Template
This bed starts eating six weeks before the neighbors sow anything. Two cold frames occupy the west end — unheated mini-greenhouses whose glass lids trap enough day heat to start seedlings in late winter and shelter transplants through spring frosts. The open ground grows only the genuinely frost-hardy: spinach and Little Gem lettuces that germinate in cold soil, a dense strip of radishes and mâche (the salad that laughs at −10 °C), arugula for early bite, and kohlrabi plus dwarf peas along the south edge. The rhythm is simple: sow inside the frames first, transplant out as seedlings toughen, then refill the frames with the next batch. By the time real spring arrives, this bed is on its third harvest.
Benefits
- 1First salads arrive up to six weeks ahead of open-ground sowing
- 2Cold frames are free heat — no cables, no greenhouse, no running costs
- 3Every open-ground crop here germinates in soil as cold as 5 °C
- 4Mâche and spinach shrug off hard frost without protection
- 5The frames flip to autumn duty, stretching the season on both ends
Growing Tips
- 1Vent the frames on any sunny day — seedlings cook faster than they freeze
- 2Sow in the frames in February, transplant out in March, repeat
- 3Choose round-seeded peas for early sowings; wrinkled ones rot in cold soil
- 4Keep a frost blanket handy for the open rows in brutal cold snaps
Included Plants (7)
Spinach×6
Spinacia oleracea
Spacing: 15 cm · 6 in
Little Gem Lettuce×6
Lactuca sativa
Spacing: 20 cm · 8 in
Radish×6
Raphanus sativus
Spacing: 5 cm · 2 in
Lamb's Lettuce×6
Valerianella locusta
Spacing: 10 cm · 4 in
Arugula×6
Eruca vesicaria subsp. sativa
Spacing: 15 cm · 6 in
Kohlrabi×4
Brassica oleracea var. gongylodes
Spacing: 20 cm · 8 in
Peas×6
Pisum sativum
Spacing: 8 cm · 3 in
Garden Elements (1)
Cold Frame
Low-profile cold frame for early season starts.
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