Spring! ...in a Hot Bed

    If you are like me, spring never comes fast enough, and you can't wait to get your fingers in the dirt! Not to mention that after months of winter, I am simply starving for some fresh, homegrown salads. Sure you can eat all the salad you want from the store, but that is just not the same! This is where a hot bed can bring on the spring. It is a fun little project, and always rewarding to get a  "wow, you have fresh salads already!" from gardening friends. You can even grow your seedlings in a hot bed. Growing up, my mom always started her tomato seeds in the house and then planted them into her hot bed to get an early start. She always had the stockiest, strongest tomato plants going into her garden!
             So what is a hot bed? It is different from a cold frame in that it is dug several feet into the ground, and is heated with manure. You put a layer of fresh manure on the bottom and add a layer of soil on top to plant in. The manure heats as it decomposes, making a warm environment inside the box to grow things. That is why it's called a 'hot' bed! 

If you have an old window laying around, you can built your box to fit the window. That makes it easy! You can also make a lid by building a frame and covering it with clear plastic.
Pick a spot with good exposure to the sun, preferably on a south-facing slope. Mark the spot by laying the window on the ground and scratching an outline.   

Time to start digging! Save any good topsoil to put back into the box. Dig down about 2 feet, making the hole slightly bigger then your outline. If it is on a slope, the front should measure two feet, and the back a little deeper.

Whew, that was some good exercise; now you are ready to built your box! Make two ends like this, with the back sloping to the front. This helps you capture all those warm rays from the sun. Sometimes they can be pretty scarce through the winter! 

Add the sides to your ends...

It is coming together! Add a narrow board as shown on the right, so you have something to hinge the lid onto.  

Fit the box into the hole and fill dirt back in. DISCLAIMER: This photo is NOT implying that hot boxes grow such handsome dudes!! :) LOVE this man!!!!

Start filling it in by adding about 12 inches of FRESH manure, preferably horse as it is the hotter then cow manure. You can mix in bits of straw, leaves, or grass clippings to add extra fuel to the manure. The fresher the manure, the hotter it will be, and the longer it will last.

Next add 6 inches or so of good soil back into the box. This is optional but I mixed in some of this stuff from the local hardware store to add organic matter. Compost would also be great!

Here the first seeds are just popping up! Never mind the snow outside, they are snug and warm enough inside the box...

In a couple more weeks you will be eating fresh salad! That first taste of spring is always the best :) Once the days get warmer, you will want to open the box during the day, especially when the sun shines.

                         Replanting the Hot Bed

When replanting the hot bed, simply dig it all out again, saving your topsoil, then start over with fresh manure. The bed also works great in the fall to extend your season into the winter.  

Last fall we got a few really nice warm days about mid November. I decided to take a gamble and replant my hot bed with lettuce seedlings. It was kinda late, but hey lets see what happens! I put a layer of straw around the box for extra insulation. 

 By the first of January they had grown a little bit but not much. We were headed down south for the next few month and I just left it covered and figured, well it was worth a try! Now I have a better idea when to plant. Next time I would plant about a month earlier so that the crops are almost ready to eat by the time you get severe freezing weather. The manure will heat for about 6 weeks and after it gets really cold, the plants can survive but they do not grow much.

We had quite a harsh winter here in central PA, with frequent sub-zero weather and lots of snow. When we came back in early March, everything was covered in several feet of frozen snow. After some of the snow melted I remembered my hot bed and decided to check on it...

This is what I found! I couldn't believe these plants survived in such temperatures and under all that snow. Pretty cool!