cold frame
Noun: A cold frame is a protective structure for plants. It consists of a low, bottomless wooden or metal box with a transparent glass or plastic lid. It is placed over soil in a garden to create a sheltered, warmer microclimate. Its primary purpose is to protect young or delicate plants from cold weather, extend the growing season, and harden off seedlings started indoors before transplanting them outside.
A cold frame is used as a gardening tool. It is typically placed on the ground over a prepared soil bed. - It is used to start seeds earlier in the spring than the outdoor climate normally allows. - It is used to harden off seedlings by gradually exposing them to outdoor conditions. - It is used to overwinter hardy plants or to protect cool-weather crops like lettuce and spinach into the fall and early winter.
- "The gardener used a cold frame to get a head start on her tomato plants."
- "Before planting them in the vegetable patch, he acclimatized the seedlings in a cold frame for a week."
- "We keep our winter greens growing in the cold frame until the first hard freeze."
- Management: Effective use of a cold frame involves monitoring temperature and moisture. The lid must be propped open on warm, sunny days to prevent overheating ("cooking" the plants) and closed at night to retain heat.
- Season Extension: A cold frame can effectively create a difference of one or more USDA hardiness zones for the plants inside it, allowing gardeners to grow plants that would otherwise be marginally hardy in their area.
- Hotbed: A more advanced version of a cold frame that includes a source of bottom heat, such as decomposing manure or electric cables, to stimulate growth.
- Greenhouse: A larger, permanent structure for cultivating plants, typically with full environmental controls.
- Cloche: A smaller, portable protective cover, often bell-shaped, placed over individual plants.
- Plant protector
- Season extender
- Mini-greenhouse
There are no common idioms or phrasal verbs specifically using the term "cold frame." It is a technical gardening term.
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protective covering consisting of a wooden frame with a glass top in which small plants are protected from the cold
