Arts and Culture

Farm Your Yard: Extend the growing season with cold frames

KBIA | By Carrie Hargrove

Published January 31, 2015 at 10:48 AM CST

1 of 4

A cold frame can be built from straw bales and plastic sheeting. Lettuce and carrot seeds planted in the warmer soil of the cold frame can mean earlier harvests.

Trevor Harris / KBIA

2 of 4

Cold hands, warm heart. Soil in Mid-Missouri is still frozen and not ready for planting. A cold frame can warm your garden's soil so that early spring greens and root crops can germinate, grow and be harvested sooner.

Trevor Harris / KBIA

3 of 4

The soil temperature climbs under the plastic sheeting that covers Carrie Hargrove's cold frame.

Trevor Harris / KBIA

4 of 4

Carrie Hargrove hosts the occasional KBIA segment Farm Your Yard. In this week's episode she discusses how to build, plant and maintain your own cold frame.

Trevor Harris / KBIA

With a little work you can eat homegrown spinach, salad greens and carrots earlier than ever before with a low-cost cold frame. The Columbia Center for Urban Agriculture's Carrie Hargrove tells us how on this episode of Farm Your Yard.