Making the Hot-bed or Hot frame

Mon, 08 Dec 2008 16:57:00 -0400

    The hot bed, also known as hot frame, is a method that was very useful for farmers in the United States to solve the problem of the short period of spring. Spring was either very short or not in existent in some northern regions, followed by the hot and humid condition of summer. The problem of the sudden transition is that farmers would not have enough time to plant vegetables before the hot weather of summer arrives. If there is a sudden transition from cold to hot weather, then the soil becomes dampen, and lots of insects may hurt the plants. Therefore the hot bed, or the hot frame was necessary at the end of winter for the prospering of the plants in summer. Hot bed or frame is also used to first grow in winter and transplant it somewhere else warmer, “Some of our seeds must be planted in hot frames with protection against the worst of the winter weather, to be transplanted later (flax, love-in-a-mist, marigold, phlox, snapdragons). Others may be planted directly in the soil and left to fend for themselves (sweet peas, lupins, nasturtiums, poppies).” The hot bed or frame is a useful tip that gardeners use to grow plants during or shortly before or after the winter.

    Making a hot bed is inexpensive and required manure. First you need to have a sufficient amount of dung. Farmers who do not raise cattle, horse or pigs would have to get dung from other farmers. Fresh dung is used to radiate heat for the hot frame. However the best type of dung to build a hot bed is horse dung. Construction of a hot bed: First dig a rectangular shaped pit deep enough to lay the manure in and cover it with soil. The dung should be raked to loosen it up. The heap should be turned again in three to four days by then steam should radiating from it. Turn the heap again after four more days. Once the manure is well prepared add a think layer of soil on top of it. Be aware, plants can die because of too much heat.

The second very important material in constructing the hot frame is the frame itself. According to the American Gardener “the Frame is of the best shape when it is eighteen inches deep at the back, and nine inches deep at the front. This gives slope enough, and especially in a country where there is so little rainy weather.” (Cobbett 40)
The frame top is better if it is glass, “The front of the bed is, of course, to be full south, so that the noon sun may come right upon the glass” (Cobbett 40). Before setting the frame, lay bales of straw around it to protect the hot frame from wind and cold temperature. Once the bales cover the four sides of the pit, lay the glass frame on top of it. This frame will not only let the sun heat come right in to the frame to keep it warm, but also helps keep the heat inside of hot frame.

Hot bed or frame is really warm. It can keep the temperature as high as 70 Fahrenheit or keep at around 50 Fahrenheit for weeks. Hot bed or hot frame can extend the growing season. You can also start planting before winter is over, or even during the winter if you have sufficient amount of dung to replace the old every month.

Bibliography

William , Cobbett. The American Gardener: A Treatise On The Situation, Soil And Laying Out Of Gardens. (Philadelphia: J.L. Gihon, 1854.)

"Building A Hot Frame." Fresh from the garden, 16 Nov 2008 <http://www.diynetwork.com/diy/gr_fruits_vegetables/article/0,2029,DIY_13846_3105695,00.html>.

Klimist, Inez . "This season's work: Enrich the soil, now." The Jerusalem Post, (December 8 2008): 7B

Week 6: Three Sisters Planting

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 17:08:00 -0400

How closely our culture and agricultural practices are tied! The Three Sisters is not only an Iroquois farming system but is also an agricultural custom steeped in legends and myths. In this planting system, corn, pole beans and squash are planted together, or interplanted, in mounded hills. “Corn, beans, and squash are considered by the Iroquois to be special gifts from the Great Spirit” (Eames-Sheavly). Each of these crops is believed to be protected by one of the ‘Three Sisters,’ a group of spirits collectively called “De-o-ha-ko” or “our sustainers” (Eames Sheavly). The legend of the sisters chronicles how they lived happily together in a field, and were harvested one by one. The smallest of the sisters (representing the bean) was harvested in late summer. The second sister (representing squash) was harvested at the beginning of fall and the third sister (corn) was harvested in late fall. While The Three Sisters together provided a varied diet, the system was also carried on as a means of respectfully using the land as interplanting has numerous ecological benefits. Beans, a member of the legume family, are nitrogen fixing plants, meaning they take nitrogen from the air and convert it into a compound that acts as a natural fertilizer. When the beans are harvested, the fixed nitrogen in their roots is released, and fertilizes the ground for the next year’s crop (which is extremely beneficial as corn needs a high amount of nitrogen in order to flourish). The corn acts as a support for the pole beans, while the squash grows out over the soil helping to control the weeds.

In our 1812 Garden, our Three Sisters are doing very well. The corn has tasseled already, the beans are starting to intertwine themselves with the corn, and the squash is starting to spread. Together they are some of the healthiest plants in the garden and already benefiting from interplanting in the form of pest control. There are only two pests I’ve encountered in the garden so far, but the Three Sisters squash are the only cucurbit plants which have no damage from the Cucumber Beetle. The second pest, the Japanese Beetle, attacks without discretion but its damage is hardly noticeable and overall its presence in the Three Sisters plot is lower than the rest of the garden as well.

This photo shows a "Three Sisters" interplanted mound in our 1812 Garden. There are multiple corn stalks thriving on each hill (the tallest of the plants). The small, triangular leaves are the bean plants, which are begining to wind their way up the corn. The wide flat leaves in the bottom left of the photo belong to the squash, which is spreading as a ground cover.

Eames-Sheavly, Marcia. The Three Sisters: Exploring an Iroquois Garden. Ithaca, N.Y. : Cornell Cooperative Extension, 1993.

The 1812 Garden Blog - Traditional Planting

Making the Hot-bed or Hot frame

Week 6: Three Sisters Planting