Why are you so focused on a coldframe -- on the north side of the house? I doubt it will get enough sun to be productive. Personally, I would forgo the season extension methods until after you get the swing of the local seasons. It's too late in the year to get anything started for winter except garlic, but many things do fine outdoors in the winter here without protection provided you start them early enough in the fall to reach most of their growth. Cabbage, kohlrabi, collards, spinach and so forth. With very few exceptions, I direct seed almost everything. I have very little luck with cool weather crops in the spring here -- it just gets too hot too fast -- but peas, radishes, lettuce and other quick varieties will make it before the heat does. I direct seed cabbage and cauliflower in late Jan (and they don't always make it), lettuce in early Feb and other spring crops like peas, radishes, mustard, Irish potatoes, beets and turnips about Valentine's Day. Summer crops go in about Easter; fall crops in July and winter crops in August, then back around to garlic in mid to late October. I suggest you wander over to the ACES web site and indulge your inner elephant's child. They have garden calendars, notes of successful local methods and much more. At this point in the season, if I were you I would: - Focus on building compost bins and collecting composting material. There's nothing wrong with a plain old compost pile; no bin necessary. - Work on other infrastructure, like fencing, sheds and raised beds if you are going to use them. - A drip irrigation system is a big help here; you may want to plan for that. - How are you going to preserve your bounty next year? If you have plans for canning, drying, etc., get yourself organized and prepared while it's the off season with drying racks and such. Root cellars don't really work very well here but finding the cool spots in or under your house will help some for potatoes and such. - Frankly, I'd till up your garden spot now to help kill weed seeds and roots, and rake the grass up and either compost it or burn/trash it. If you have bermuda or a similar grass thug, don't try to compost it! Even if you plan to be no-till in general, it will help get your spot started. One last thought on homemade seed containers: Like I said, I don't start much indoors now -- more effort than it's worth -- but when I do I use either old nursery pots so that I don't have to transplant them into another pot before they go in the ground, or I have some love wooden seed flats that work better than anything else for a nice mix of moisture retention vs. too wet. I used to make newspaper pots, but I found the plants developed healthier root system when I took the paper off before planting -- the paper didn't biodegrade quite as fast as the plants need root space.

Tom: If adelgids are not accidentally transported to your area, the "natural" movement of the infestation should leave you untouched for many years. By then, if some control method using these beetles works out, people will know what to do by then to protect the hemlocks. But, and here is a depressing story, the nectria/scale disease was no where near my Western MD timberland, and was not expected to get there for a long, long time. Then, some jerk, decided that he would bring a truckload of firewood down from his place in Maine to Kempton, MD, which is about 4 miles south of my land. Of course, the logs he brought were from dying beech trees--all infested with the disease. So I not only will lose my hemlocks, but also my beech trees. Carrying firewood from Maine to the mts of western MD is as wierd and senseless as it gets, even forgetting about the fact that he should have known better, seeing the beech trees die there. Lets hope no one decides to take any hemlock trees from some infested area up to Wisconsin! Oh, as for the beetles--they are trying several kinds--I think at least three, but I have not kept up on the details of each kind. One issue of concern is that one or more of the beetles they are trying feed exclusively on the adelgid, making it difficult to get a population built up BEFORE the infestation starts, and after the infestation starts, it is difficult to get the beetle population to catch up with the numbers needed to make an impact. There are all kinds of complications facing these efforts. --Spruce

Oh, Sped, what a beautiful picture! She is special! You never know, we had Sara, a gray cat (with a red personality), for 22.5 years, so your pretty gal may have a few summers to go. Like us, you must run a good cat house, lol. PM2 - I WISH I lived near a conserved area. 'Fraid the closest we come is living near a right-wing Lutheran organist, but there are horses across and up the street. Fortunately, Ivy pretty much ignores the birds and has not killed one yet. She favors 4 legged things and the random slithering thing...yuck. Claire? Today I noticed a Blue Jay mimicking a Broad Winged Hawk. Darn thing got me to dash into the house for my camera thinking 'Oh, boy, BW hawk in flight" only to find this B Jay clearing out the bird feeder area with his mimicking. It is effective! Have you had a mimicking Blue Jay? The Broad Winged hawks fly overhead around noon time and shortly thereafter, this Blue Jay mimicks them. Jane

Thank you, everyone.. I am pleased! I was certain it would be perfect for just the reasons Sueb pointed out-- the glass top and clean lines. Many quilter's frames have a t leg and it looks more busy-- and more country (which is not my goal). Sue, I am hoping that as I integrate it into the room design with a few coffee table chachas that it will work better. It met my budget and my requirements-- and it's interesting. I am sure I'll make it work. Will post a photo when I am a little further along with the room. :)