Cold frames are great season extenders, allowing vegetables to be planted 2-4 weeks earlier than unprotected plants as well as extending the growing season in the fall. They can also play a key role in the transition of seedlings of all kinds from the sheltered windowsill or greenhouse environment to the outdoors.

Build your very own cold frame which disassembles for easy transportation and storage, in this Tower Hill Botanical Garden workshop on August 24 from 9 – noon with Gretel Anspach. The cold frame’s footprint is 2′ x 4′, and slopes from 24″ at the back to 16″ at the front. All tools will be supplied (though you can bring your own drill or power screwdriver if you like), and no experience with woodworking is needed. Fee includes materials.

Gretel Anspach is a Lifetime Master Gardener with the Massachusetts Master Gardener Association, a Trustee of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, and a recently-retired systems engineer for Raytheon. Gretel helped to establish and maintain two food production gardens that have provided fresh produce to the Marlboro Food Pantry for the last eight years.