The Marconi Rosso Peppers are looking rather succulent and beginning to ripen to a nice red colour with no signs of damage, either from the weather or insects. The fact that this area has not experienced frost yet has helped.

The need to be able to close the cold frame is rather obvious in the event of an early frost. As speculated earlier, the plan is to increase the height of the cold frame by at least another six inches in the coming year.

It appears that the pepper plants have reached just about their maximum height and they have grown well. I will consider adding another 6 inches to each cold frame next year to optimize for height requirements.

I'm forced at this time to keep the doors open through the night and I'm hoping this will not adversely affect pepper development which has already started.

As you can see, an extra 6 inches were added this year to one of the cold frames in anticipation of a required growing height. This makes the height approximately 30 inches at the peak.

The Marconi Rosso Pepper plants have a good start and should be well protected against wind and large temperature fluctuations, especially at night when the cold frames are kept closed.

Overall benefits were not realized with the cabbage as the cold frames were left in place and growth of the cabbage heads was somewhat restricted. However, the rapid development in a protected environment of the spinach plants appears to make the concept promising for succession planting. This will be attempted next year within one frame and as well between frames.

Additionally, the other frame will be raised by 6 inches by adding another base component in order to accomodate pepper plants next year. That's the plan... at least for now.

Rather quick development of the plants was observed. Two immediate benefits were: 1) shelter from the wind and 2) protection from the cold especially during the night. Due to the lack of automation, it's important to be diligent in the positioning of the doors.

Two cold frames were installed in their resting place for the season within the garden. A variety of plants were started indoors, however, a decision was made to transplant cabbage and start some spinach from seed early in the cold frames.

I am pleased to share with you my new website detailing an original cold frame design. If gardening is your calling and cold frames are your area of expertise, feel free to reach out and/or contribute. Enjoy!

Second cold frame completed. 2 pane door design used to test rigidity of larger polycarbonate panels.

First cold frame completed. 4 pane door design used to test ability to use smaller polycarbonate panels if available.