Winter Gardening -DIY Cold Frame for the Raised Bed Garden

One of the things on the wish list for my raised bed garden was a small cold frame for the short end. The only thing I plan to plant is spinach seeds so the box didn't need to be too tall. I love spinach and believe it will grow well, even in winter if well protected. My hope is to be able to add some leaves to lunch salads, or if a bumper crop grows, toss some into Sunday dinner:@) I consider my first cold frame a curiosity, or science experiment, so I just asked the folks at Home Depot to cut an 8'x2"x10" board for me. I screwed on a some corner brackets and used an old tempered glass cutting board for the top. The cutting board is 20"x16", so that's the size of the wooden box. In the summer I'll store the glass in the shed and use the box as extra garden space.

We're having a fairly mild winter in Philly:@)

A few weeks ago, long before I built the cold frame,

I added some spinach seeds to a 10" pot and buried it in the dirt.

Then placed a clear glass pot lid on top.

The seeds sprouted!

Since they are too fragile to plant into the dirt now,

I just moved the whole pot to the cold frame and sprinkled more seeds around.

I read that folks add a plastic bottle filled with water

and painted black to help with heat.

I'll most likely do that soon.

We'll see how everything grows😎

Let's celebrate a little winter green wherever we can find it,

and have a happy day:@)