Solar Cold Frame

a blog post

Ampersand's cold frame is usually the favorite stop on our site tours. If you have ever grown in one, you know that a cold frame is a season extender. It's a way to create a milder climate so that we can grow outside all year round.

Our cold frame is made out of an old shower door, it is sunken into the ground on the north and west sides and it is insulated along the walls. The north wall holds a stack of bottles filled with water, adding thermal mass to our design in order to further stabilize the temperatures. 

It's important to open the cold frame in the morning and close it at night on sunny days. We don't want to turn our cold frame into a solar oven. We built a Passive Solar Cold Frame Tender which allows the sun to do this for us. Read more...