With the beginning of Spring, Post Oil Solutions offers its annual cold frame workshop as a way of demonstrating how people can get an early jump on the growing season. This year, the workshop will be held on Sunday, March 14, 1:00 PM, at the Rotch Building, Kipling Road, School for International Training.

The simple glass covered wooden frame was a state of the art growing device 100 years ago. It can be used throughout all four seasons and provides a simple alternative to a free-standing greenhouse. Through slides and discussion, the basics of cold frame operation will be presented as a way to extend the season both in spring and fall. A modern evolution of the cold frame now made from aluminum hoops and greenhouse grade plastic will be shown. In the late summer 2010 Cold Frame Workshop participants will be able to make their own hoop-style cold frame for use that fall and the following spring.

Our fee is a sliding scale, $2/$20, with no one refused for lack of funds. Pre-registration and pre-payment are required, however: please call 641.715.3900, ext. 85789 to leave your registration information. Please note: Unregistered admissions at the door will be charged $20, firm, and admitted only if there is room. Light refreshments will be provided.

Our workshop will again be led by Post Oil's garden guru, and designer of our (Re)learning series, Robert King. Robert has worked with many “master gardeners” over the past 40 years. His interests include sustainable agriculture as found in Rudolf Steiner’s Bio-Dynamic scientific/organic methods, Shaker agriculture, and low-tech appropriate technology (including hand tools).

Additionally, we are offering a companion "textbook" to accompany our workshops. Published by the University of Maine, Smart Gardener: A Learning Guide for Home Vegetable Grower is an invaluable 72-page learning guide that will teach you how to make the most of your home vegetable gardens, large and small. Each of the 12 lessons focuses on a specific aspect of gardening know-how, such as soil, seeds, garden design, mulches and weeds, and is a very useful supplement to our workshops. We will be selling this at the workshop for $6.

For information about additional workshop offerings in the months ahead, please go to www.postoilsolutions.org.