Thermopane glass that has the low-e coating is not ideal for plants. Most does have it. I go for single-glaze glass. A cold frame can be super-simple or as complicated as you want. The simplest is make a box out of whatever you have, 1x or 2x boards wide as possible. Make the outside demension of the box the same as one or more sash. Make up a growing bed and place the box on it sloping somewhat toward south, 10 degrees or so, just push the south end down and prop up the north end and heap up soil and pile mulch on the north side for insulation. If you don't have hinges just set the sash on the box. On sunny days around mid-morning take the sash off, put them back on mid-afternoon. Cloudy days leave them on or put a block under the sash to ventilate it a little. Works just fine. Take you about 30 minutes.

Rhianna813 shame on you! You are posting in a frugal forum and don't know how to scrounge? LOL. No dumpster diving yet? You ain't frugal till you've made the plunge. Well let me help you if I may. Kidding aside, here is where I got my supplies for building a green house and raised bed gardens. Alley shopping of course. Freecycle watching also. And then I wandered into a reuse store that had tons and tons of old windows. Wooden sash type and the newer aluminum storm windows. Not all together but just pieces of either the screens or the glass. All different sizes. I had bought a couple for like 3 dollars each. A neighboring dumpster had a discarded outside aluminum door with the very large glass still intact and mounted in there. I ran home and got my screwdriver and released it from the frame and took it home. It is like 30" wide by 48" tall and has a mini alum frame all around. That alone will be the top of one cold frame and glue will hold a hinge on it. I got about 10 old windows off of freecycle and these are just perfect. A little paint on the ends and they will work for cold frames, hot frames, or a mini greenhouse. Menards has a scrap lumber bin and I get lots of small pieces of lumber there for under a buck each, sometimes as low as 29cents each. I got a dozen 2"X12"X4' pieces of lumber for like a buck each and these will be the sides of a cold frame and raised beds frames. A coat of sealer will make them last longer. If someone has alum window frames, screen or glass, I will take them home for some future project or one day scrap out the alum. They store easily. Hope this helps. Good luck.

Sure, Galen. Quickly: Big picture of CFs & hoops: ^^ The hoop by gate went all winter, cabbage, lettuce, spinach. Too much work & won't do again: Hoops, poly pipe with poly clips connecting fabric and water for heat retention, I paint my containers now: Hoops, conduit and poly with fabric and maybe plastic: Germination under coldframe - cattle panel with 2 layers of greenhouse film and north side insulated, the soil warming film is from Johnny's: Germination under other coldframe: Detail of construction, mostly found material from const sites, two layers of OSB and sheathing insulation + air gap gives ~R-5.5-6.0 (with thermal bridge): What they can take, including ~5-10 days below 0F (300 days of sun here @ 5700 ft): HTH Dan

Thanks, the plumbers finished up for today and turned the water back on. but it's cold water only. Tomorrow they will finish up. My cold is a tiny bit better. I made some vegetable soup for dinner-actually, Campbells made the soup, I just heated it, I will go to bed now.