{"id":26159,"date":"2014-04-19T08:00:11","date_gmt":"2014-04-19T14:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dailyimprovisations.com\/?p=26159"},"modified":"2014-04-16T15:58:16","modified_gmt":"2014-04-16T21:58:16","slug":"diy-outdoor-plant-shelf-system-hardening-seedlings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyimprovisations.com\/diy-outdoor-plant-shelf-system-hardening-seedlings\/","title":{"rendered":"DIY Outdoor Plant Shelf System for Hardening Off Seedlings"},"content":{"rendered":"

I thought I wanted<\/strong> a cold frame for my birthday, to help me with hardening off my seedlings started in my greenhouse. I have an old one that I’ve been using (that my engineer made me years ago),<\/em> along with the picnic table, the patio furniture, and the patio cement. He was quite willing to make me a new cold frame, and went to work reviewing the angles of the sunlight in southwest Idaho in the spring, as well as calculating how large the cold frame would have to be to hold very many plants. In essence, it would take up half of the patio. Plus, he has seen how I move trays of seedlings around to get them in the sun. So, he came up with the idea of an outdoor plant shelf that I could use as part of my system. He taught me how to make it as he went along. (click on any photo to enlarge)<\/em><\/p>\n

You may find<\/strong> his research on angles of sunlight interesting. If not, skip to below. But for those of you who want to know the train of thought, here is his diagram that he showed me:<\/p>\n

\"He<\/a>
He drew the angles that sunlight would be coming from and determined what angle the cold frame top would have to be to let the sunlight pass through optimally.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We have two books about greenhouses that he read when he was building me my greenhouse that is attached to the kitchen, Greenhouse Gardener’s Companion<\/a><\/span>\"\" and The Complete Book of the Greenhouse<\/a>\"\"<\/span>. He used these books to get a better understanding of how light is affected by the angles of surfaces. He looked up the angles for our locality on the internet. He also measured the angles of the shadows cast by the picnic table at 1:00 PM to compare. It wasn’t exactly what was listed, but it was very close. March, April, and May would be the months that I would use something for hardening off seedlings.<\/p>\n

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He showed me that I would really be limited to one layer in the cold frame. We discussed how I rarely closed the cold frame. He suggested a set of shelves to “put the plants to bed,” instead of having to carry them all back into the greenhouse every night (they never all fit in the old cold frame)<\/em>. We would design a cover to keep them warm at night, maybe even use a heater. (More on that in another article)<\/em> It made sense to me!<\/p>\n

He went shopping<\/strong> on the internet and around town for ready-made shelves, only to find that they were not made to dimensions that utilized our space well AND they weren’t shaped to hold the plant trays that I use. He also knew that he wanted something that could stand up to the elements, as well as all the moisture associated with trays of seedlings. So he came home with these supplies:<\/p>\n