A closed cold frame can easily reach over 120 degrees if sunny especially while the sun is high. One of my cold frames I need to have ventilated if it's sunny and 28 degrees, another is about 35 degrees and the other two frames are ok until about 40 degrees. Depending on the outside temperature I'll prop the lids either an inch (with a block of wood)or 3 inches (with a brick). Generally by 9 am I open them fully if it's around 40 degrees. 80-85 would be ok for tomato seedlings. Soil cables are something that's used more during the winter months. I don't use them though they might have some use during spring. The soil stays fairly warm as it is. I have Christmas lights that I use for heat if needed but I've only used them about a dozen times since November. I've experimented with a few warm weather seedlings this spring ( 2 tomatoes and 2 peppers). The peppers have all but failed and the tomatoes are hanging around ok. I figured it was early for warm weather seedlings in an cold frame but thought I would try. We have had a snowy and cold April. As temps start climbing into the 40s overnight it'll stay closer to 55-60 in the frames at night so it should then be ok for the warm weather stuff.

It's been so warm you can plant just about anytime as long as it's not going to be freezing in the next few evenings after planting. The more difficult thing to do would be to germinate the plants. Many need fairly warm soils to germinate. Generally fall and winter plantings happen from August into September when the soils are warm and the sun is still stronger and is offering more sun hours during the day. This helps the seed germinate. But you can plant seeds indoors under lights or in cold frames now, and then plant small plants in the garden. My favorite schedule is from Georgia Organics. It is mostly for the Atlanta region: http://gostaging.digitaltoolfactory.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/plantingcalendar.pdf

Hi kaw I'm pretty new to all this too. But I think if germination is a concern Why not start them indoors? A lil further north than me. But it does seem to be a cool summer this year. But any real concerns an answers specifically for your area. Give your county extention office a call and or look and see if the have a website. If they do they probably might have a FAQ section... oh well just a thought or two.. sure some smart people will come along soon enough. But then again this greatlake forum don't get a whole lot of action... to bad!

I'm gonna jump in here with a few comments! Am I right in assuming you're looking for things that you can basically "store" outside to save room in the fridge and in the house? If that assumption is right, you can store carrots, parsnips and beets outside right in the ground--without digging them up! Most of my beets and carrots and all of my parsnips are still out in the ground! I was planning to dig up some of them this past week with the nice weather, but haven't been feeling all that good, so I put it off for our next batch of warm weather! Before we got our first REALLY cold snap, I dumped a couple big bags of maple leaves on them! When I stored them outside a couple years ago I put a lot more leaves on them and then covered the whole thing with an old sheet to keep the leaves from blowing away--didn't bother doing that this time, and I'm expecting them to be just fine. You said you don't like beets, but have you ever tried the gold ones? And if you like pickled things, pickled beets are really good--and don't really taste a whole lot like "beets" anymore! Digit, where are you finding so many varieties of parsnips? Almost everywhere I look carries Harris Model, and most places seem to only have one, or maybe two other varieties. I was planning to try Hollow Crown one year, but never got around to getting the seed! Overall I've been very happy with Harris! Considering my really heavy clay, they seem to be able to easily bully their way down into it, and I've had a few up to 14" long! I think I have more trouble digging them up than they do growing! Do you have a particular variety that you like more than Harris? I think they're incredibly sweet and yummy! A couple comments about carrots! I tried Purple Dragon this year, and I guess I was expecting it to be--at least partly--purple inside, but discovered that the only thing that's purple is the skin! Have to say I was disappointed! There are lots of sites online expounding on the increased health benefits of the purple ones, but I always peel carrots, so, there goes the purple! If anybody knows of a purple variety that's purple all or most of the way thru, I'd love to know about it! The Purple Dragon I grew this year stayed VERY small, and since they aren't purple inside, I wasn't planning to grow them again! Interesting factoid: When I peeled them some of them were nice and orange inside, and some of them were a pale, kind of anemic looking yellow! Looked identical on the outside! One other thing while I'm thinking about it! If you grow carrots and decide to dig and keep them in the fridge, don't wash them! Just brush off any excess soil, be sure they're not overly wet, and stick them in a plastic bag! A couple years I still had a few left in the fridge when I was planting the following year, and they were still just fine having been stored that way. I'm not sure about this, but based on my experience it almost seems as if washing them washes off some sort of "natural" protection, and they don't seem to keep as long if washed first--IMO! (I don't wash any root crops if I'm storing them in the fridge.) I grow a Chantenay type--specifically Royal Chantenay, but there are several others. They get big around--easily up to a couple inches, but stay fairly short--usually up to about 4-5" for me--tho I really don't have ideal growing conditions considering both soil and light. The Chantenay kind are also supposed to be one of the easiest to grow in heavy soils. With my awful soil, based on having tried the Nantes type that digit recommends, I definitely get the biggest and best carrots from the Chantenay's! My brother in Illinois grows them (which is how I discovered them), and with his good Illinois black dirt, his get HUGE. More than 2" in diameter and at lest 4-5" long. BUT, no matter how huge they get, they are always sweet and tender all the way thru--no nasty core in the middle. He stores his in a bucket, in dry sand, in an unheated building over winter. See the link below for info about some of the different types! I tried a white one last year too--mostly for the novelty of it, but they also didn't get very big at all, and since most of the health benefits are in the deep colors, I decided it wasn't worth using my limited space to grow them again. About the quality, I think the home-grown ones are noticeably better for all the root crops. I use a lot of store bought carrots, and usually keep my home grown ones to eat raw or to use when I'm having company! They really are good--tho you sometimes run into really good store bought ones, but you never know what they'll taste like till you get them home! With parsnips, since so few people seem to know about them, I don't remember finding really fresh, good ones in a grocery store--ever! Before I started growing them I bought store bought ones a few times, and they weren't awful, but they were always just--old, having laid around in the store for so long. I've never bought produce department beets. it's either my own or canned--and home grown trumps canned by a mile! I'm not into all the "weird" kinds of greens you're asking about--that Digit tends to grow, so I can't help you with answers for any of that stuff! I don't like bitter AT ALL! Tried orach once when I got some seeds at a swap and even that was too bitter for me! I grew leeks one year when a pack of starts (Lancelot) jumped into my basket at Paulino's, and I really liked them, but with my dearth of sunlight, they really didn't do that well or get very big, most of them, so I haven't tried them again since then. I would like to grow a few again some year, maybe try to get them into a place with a little more sun. BUT, the year I did grow them, I also covered them with maple leaves and left them in the ground well into the winter. A couple other things that you can grow well into, if not all the way thru, winter are parsley and cutting celery. Depending on the winter, you can pick and use them all winter long. The cold doesn't phase them, and they are NOT covered at all! They will, being biennials, bolt as soon as it gets warm in spring, so you do need to start new ones each year. My other "winter crop" is tomatoes! They, of course, need to be stored inside, but I'm still picking them--up in an unheated bedroom. They started out again hung in the garage, but when it was gonna get well below freezing the first time I carried them in and laid them on a sheet in the bedroom--where they're (mostly the cherries now) still slowly ripening. Oh, and I haven't gotten around to this yet, but spinach, at least some varieties, can be planted in fall in time to germinate, and they'll be the first thing you can use in the spring. Charlene did this the first year she had a veggie garden when she planted them in fall hoping to get a crop then, but didn't and figured it had been a waste, and then she had an amazing crop in early spring--and we all had a wonderful spinach salad at the very first swap, which was at her house! I have been planning to start some in fall for three years now, and just never get it done. Regret it every spring since I haven't yet been able to successfully grow spinach when I start it in the spring. It always immediately bolts! That's all I can think of right now--and the second season of Downton Abbey just started, so I have to go! If I think of anything else I'll be back! Skybird P.S. When you want to do two posts in a row, just change the subject, or a word or couple letters in the subject, and it's no problem! GW doesn't seem to recognize it as a second post that way! P.P.S. Digit, what does kale taste like??? Is it like cabbage? I alway thought of it just as an ornamental when I sold it, and I know you can eat it but just never thought about growing it. Do you eat it fresh too, or just cooked? Tell me all about it! Here is a link that might be useful: Different types of carrots