Nice work! That looks awesome! It looks as if your cold frame is facing to the east, with the back of it to the west. correct me if I'm wrong. At high noon the cold frame should have 100% direct sunlight inside, over all the plants. Yours looks just like mine, same plastic and all. The back should be on the north, IE, the cold from should slope downwards toward the south. However, there should be plenty of light that gets in the cold frame through the plastic sheeting. I know it doesn't look like it, but the dull light is perfect for brand new seedlings (like a week old, yours look older than a week) At the bottom of your last picture, the lettuce looks like its getting good light through your plastic, is the wooden frame itself shading the other guys in there? and to answer you about hardening off, seedlings only take me at most 3 days to harden off. I leave them outside in the cold for an hour and then bring them in, and the the next night increase the time by a couple hours. By the third night if it isn't too cold (like below 45) I'll leave them out all night. In a cold frame they should be well ready for a night outside in a windless cold frame. The real bad thing about hardening off isn't the green leafy part of the plant getting cold, its the roots, which are susceptible to shock. soil temperatures, even near the top inch stay pretty even keeled, and change gradually. leaving a plastic potter out overnight meant the root system has to go from 60 or 70 degree soil to 40 or 45 degree soil in the space of a few hours.. its a tough trick to turn if they aren't used to it. Lettuce will germinate right down to freezing temperatures, its incredibly cold hardy. while it takes months at 33 degrees to germinate, the plant itself doesn't need to be hardened off, at least not cautiously so. give it a couple hours in the nighttime cold and then they'll be ready to stay outside. I've never lost a lettuce seedling before, and I've forgotten more times than I can count. I did lose a couple tomato starts to shock one year though... Which part of zone 5 do you live in Chele? If I may be so bold as to ask. I'm on the southern edge of 5, almost to zone 6. Sorry for being a chatterbox. Here is a link that might be useful: My blog, if anyones interested

what about checking out some youtube videos Here is a link that might be useful: check this out

I'm a newbie and just purchased a couple of acres. I was originally thinking of doing a garden area and then having a large walk-in hoop house off to the side. However, space is a little tight (my garden plot just kept growing as I added new veggies to the plan!) and it occured to me that I could possibly combine the garden/hoophouse space. I'm thinking I could do a wood frame around the garden space and then do removable pvc/wood frames and plastic sheeting - put them on in the fall and take off/store in the spring. Do any of you more experienced gardeners have thoughts on the logistics/potential problems with this idea? Saving the space would be nice, but not if it will cause potential problems down the line. A couple of my concerns: -logistics of taking on/off the frames and plastic - would it interfere with getting cool weather crops out early/ late in the season? (ie, putting up the hoops making the cool weather crops too warm) - overworking the soil (thought I might divide out the hoop space into 3 sections where I left one bare and put compost on it in the off season, one that gets a cover crop, and one that gets planted?) - any other problems or potential issues that I'm not thinking of? Thank you for any advice!

Here's the pic