May 12, 2013 - Preparing for the Freak Cold

The forecast for the next two nights is unseasonably cold dropping into the mid-30's on Monday night.  After putting all my plants in last week I am concerned that I may have to start over if I didn't take action.  I spent some time this morning searching for solutions I opted to create some cold frames out of PVC and plastic sheeting.

I'm hoping that I can use this (or an improved version) of this system later in the season to extend the growing season late into the fall.

 

 Here's the before.  

My stapler was broken so used some roofing nails with large heads to secure the sides of the plastic to some 2x2s.  This weighed down the sides but also will let me pull up the plastic sheets for ventilation.

 This is the only trick for the whole operation: screwing these metal brackets into the wall of the raised beds, and then sliding the 10 foot sections of 1/2" PVC pipe into each side.  There's just enough flex on the pipe to make it across the four foot span.

 I had planned on putting cross beams in place but they weren't really necessary once I had all the PVC bent.

 There is actually quite a bit of head room.  I didn't even have to remove the tomato cages.

 I used two spring clamps to hold the plastic together and down in the middle of each bed.  If I had more clamps I would have used them.

All closed up for the night. I tied up the ends and weighed down the excess plastic with some rocks. I hope there's enough residual heat to make it through the night.  Tomorrow I plan to leave large rocks out in the sun and place them inside to give it a little more heat at night.