CITO & a Recycled Cold Frame

The last few weeks have been stressful. Every year in my work portfolio, there is about a month where I spend my overtime budget back to back to back.... I've worked an extra week in hours in the last four weeks. I'm tired; really tired; and need of a break. I found some leisure yesterday, thankfully.

This week is "pitch in week" so we joined the geocaching gang  to clean up an area in our neighbourhood. In geocaching language, we call this a "CITO" (cache in, trash out). The result after about 2 hours was this huge pile of junk. Additionally challenging for me as I squatted with my favourite 20ish lb baby on my back at the same time!

After all that fun and a quick bite with our caching friends, we headed home for a nap and to dig in our gardens. My saving grace of stress relief continues to be some time I can spend messing around out there; and the fact that J still naps.

My brother and dad were here a few months ago and used the windows that we removed from our hobo-chic basement & wood from a floating deck in the backyard we tore out last year to make a cold frame.

The idea for a cold frame is quite simple - basically a box with windows (or vinyl) on that the light can pass through. You can use it to extend the growing season (early spring or late fall). Or in the case of Hinton AB, you can use it to let you start your seeds earlier or protect plants from the unpredictable weather. 

I surfed the Internet for plans, and there is a lot to be had, but we made sort of a hybrid, as my windows were rectangular and not square.

My cold frame met a little accident last week when I put the windows up to start planting it. It was quite a windy day and so the windows didn't quite rest comfortably, and the I ended up breaking two of them. The good news was though, I had more... I got out the handy power tools (gasp, I know, yes, all by myself) and I screwed two more windows on.

Plants from left to right are - one cherry tomato, one early girl tomato, lettuce mix, scallions, stir fry mix (asian vegetables), geraniums.

I also pulled all the weed out of my right side front bed and planted vegetables (more on that and the garden plan is up next), and admired the tulips that are raising their little heads again (a gift from the original owner of the house).

 Had an awesome day enjoying the 16C weather and even got a little sun. How is your weekend going?