Is it too late to sow any winter salad crops? Having purchased some winter salad seeds from Dobies it occurs to me that it may be too late to plant them out directly in the soil.
However using a method that I saw on Gardeners World a couple of weeks back it may be possible, what are you thoughts?
On the program there was reference to growing melons in big country house gardens, using what are essentially heated cold frames which are double walled and in filled with 15 tons of manure either side. There are vents through to the growing space and melons or pineapple are able to be grown in this country.
My thoughts are to build a smallish cold frame from salvaged bricks lets say big enough to hold 2-4 propagator trays, on a bed of manure (to improve the soil so that in future crops can be grown directly in soil).
Making it double walled lets say with 8″ between inner and out brick walls filling that with manure and with a glass cover over the top (as I have a panel from a greenhouse which is about the right width and of suitable length).
Even to purchase new bricks is not that expensive at about 35p per brick from Wickes. The inner wall could be made out of newer bricks (less disease risk) the ones which are hollow in the middle with holes to allow warm air to circulate. Will this work?
Can you recommend any other salad crops to grow in a cold frame over winter?
One advantage is that these cold frames are completely movable, allow the propagation of seedlings, raising seedlings earlier in the year and much more I am sure.
