I have been re -reading one of my gardening books, and one of the phrases within it is ‘that a cold frame is not an essential piece of equipment but will save you money and increase your interest’.  This is an older book, and the author describes building a cold frame from wood and glass.  Nowadays, of course, it is possible to buy coated steel tubular and plastic framed cold frames.  I have been using the shelved tubular cold frames for decades and found them to be very useful. 

They may not last as long as the wooden frames but they are so much cheaper than wooden ones and mine have actually lasted for over 5 years.   In order to extend their life, it is necessary to ensure that the plastic remains on them and to replace the plastic when it becomes brittle.  So the costs of buying new plastic versus buying a new tubular  frame or buying a wooden frame need to be weighed up  Aesthetically they are not so pleasing as the wooden frames, but they do the job and when filled with flowers somehow the framework fades into the background.  Anyway, I love them and will continue to use them.

They are invaluable to me for providing protection for hardy annuals in early spring.   The protection is not so much from freezing weather but more from the torrential rain and gale force winds that seem to be ever more frequent. 

Now, it is possible to build your own coldframe with wood and glass, specifically windows, and this is something that one day, I would certainly like to attempt, as much for the satisfaction of saying I built that as for anything else.  Obviously, it is also possible to buy wood and glass cold frames they do look lovely, although they are a  lot more expensive. This particular cold frame cost me very little  money and I wanted to test out what benefits it would mean to me.  I was intending to build it last weekend.

I  eagerly unpacked the box and tipped the contents onto the living room floor.  There were a lot of steel tubes and plastic bits to connect them with.  So, I began the process of putting it altogether.  It’s rather like a jig saw, really.  I find it to be a lot less frustrating if I group all the pieces in their respective parts.  There were 4 different sizes and types of tubing and 3 different types of plastic joints.  In all, there are 24 tubes and 14 plastic joints.   It is really just a process of looking at the picture and fitting all the tubes together methodically.  

It is quite important that the tubes are not tightened too much as if the wrong tubes are connected, they will need to be  taken apart.  But they also need to be tight enough that the frame does not fall apart when it is moved it around.  I found that wearing rubber gloves helped  me to get a stronger grip on the steel tubes to push them together adequately enough.  I must have looked rather odd, with my marigolds on and a lot of steel tubes surrounding me.  Even though I have put a lot of these together, this one still fell apart a bit when I moved it around. It took me approximately 2 hours to build and was not too difficult.  Finally, I managed to put all the steel tubes together.  It was a nice size and just fit through my doors into the garden.  It is very light so no problem getting it outside, but being so lightweght,  I knew that it would be  necessary to ensure that it is either pegged down or secured to the ground or wall in some way.   With difficulty, I managed to find a space for it in my increasingly crowded garden, where it would get some sunlight. I pegged it down with the pegs that are provided, which I am hoping are long enough to anchor it to the ground sufficiently to stop it from blowing away. 

I managed to install some of my more precious and temperamental flowers in it before the weather closed in for that day, and deteriorated, as per the forecast into hailstones, gale force winds and eventually torrential rain for over 24 hours.  I admit to being a little concerned that it would not hold up to the conditions that it would  be subjected to, but I was very relieved when I looked out of the window the next morning it was still there and not sitting in my neighbours garden.   

I may take it down over the summer if I find that it is not needed.  This will also help to preserve the plastic.  I have never had the need to dismantle my shelved frames, but it is something that I would like to do to see if it is possible and/or useful. 

All in all, I am very pleased with the new addition to my garden, and I hope that it will be very useful to me.