Home & Garden

Cold Frames & Row Covers: Growing Past the Frost

Meets Saturdays · 11:30 AM - 1:00 PM · on location Fall 2026 · registration open Free to audit

This class runs in the Fall 2026 session. Registration is open now; lessons, materials, and the class discussion board are posted before it begins.

Utah County hands you a short window between the last hard frost of spring and the first one of fall, and this class is about claiming back the weeks on both ends. Over hands-on sessions we'll build simple cold frames from reused windows and scrap lumber, then cut and rig row covers you can put up and take down without wrecking your seedlings. We'll work through the stuff that actually decides whether it works: buying good soil, tracking frost dates and soil temperature, venting on sunny days (more crops cook than freeze, honestly), hard water and clogged emitters, and watering under cover in dry air. You'll build, get your hands dirty, and make the mistakes here instead of at home. You'll leave with a finished cold frame plan, an early-spring planting map, a frost strategy, and a harvest that runs into November.

What you'll learn

Build a cold frame from scrap lumber and reused windows, with a sloped lid and a prop arm
Choose row cover fabric weight for spring versus fall and anchor it against the wind
Track frost dates and soil temperature to time shoulder-season plantings
Vent covered beds so crops don't cook on a warm day
Fix clogged emitters and water effectively under cover in dry air

Lessons

Reading the Valley: Frost, Sun, and What's Worth Extending
Before you build anything, you figure out your actual growing window and pick crops that earn their keep.
Soil First: Where Your Yield Lives and Dies
You can cheap out on the structure, but not on the dirt, so we get the beds right.
Building a Cold Frame from Scrap
The hands-on core of the class: a simple, ventable cold frame built from reused materials.
Row Covers and Lighter Cover Options
When you don't want to build a box, fabric and hoops still buy you weeks on both ends.
Managing Heat, Water, and the Things Nobody Warns You About
The daily work of keeping crops alive under cover: venting, hard water, and dry air.
Pushing Both Ends of the Season
Putting it all together to plant earlier in spring and harvest deeper into fall.

Class discussion

The class discussion board opens when the class begins this fall. Auditors and enrolled students ask questions and share work here once the session starts.