Читать книгу Make Your Garden Feed You - E. Brown T. - Страница 12

A frame is simply a box made rather higher at the back than at the front and fitted with a glass top. If the allotment or garden plot is of only small dimensions there is no reason why a crate should not be re-modelled and a piece of glass, say, a picture-frame, used for the top. Two or three such frames might be rigged up at little or no cost.

For the larger allotment, however, it is better to buy a three-light frame or, if the amateur gardener is handy with tools, to buy the “lights” and fashion the woodwork at home.

The usual type of frame is that known as the lean-to, as shown in Fig. 3. The ordinary light measures 6 ft. by 4 ft., so the whole structure measures 12 ft. by 6 ft. The body of the frame should be 14 in. high in front and 18 in. high at the back, and it should be made of sound boarding 1¹/₄ in. in thickness. When more than one “light” is used there must be a channelled cross-member where they come together, so that the rain which percolates between may drain away without reaching the inside of the frame, where it may do damage to young seedlings.

The series of frames should be placed directly on the ground (slightly raised, if possible, to ensure adequate drainage) and, if plants are to be grown in pots, pans, or seed-boxes, filled with a 10-in. layer of cinders or coconut fibre. If a bed is made up, in which the plants are to be placed direct, this should consist of a 10-in. layer of good garden soil.