Realistic date to begin seedlings in cold frame...

I'm looking for info on "cold frame farming", for lack of a better term or ignorance of the proper one.
A little background on my farming experience, I grew 13 Cherokee Purples in containers last year to resounding success! Much to my surprise. I also had a few cukes and two different squash. The Squash did well and the cukes were so-so. The cukes were all in ground as well as most of the squash with the exception of a few butternuts that did well as volunteers in a container.
I did use chemical fertilizer in the form of two different "insert-adjective'-gro" blends. One expressly for tomatoes and then the general solution.
The container mix was store bought humus bags, like a buck fifty each,and very rich baked leaf mould from beneath our twenty year leaf piles. I also cut in some coarse sand to help with drainage. The dirt was probably 50/50 with about another 25% portion of sand.

I also had two VERY small Charleston Grey watermelons that were planted way late from seed as an after thought. The two melons I got were pretty tasty anyway! Small, but tasty!

BTW - the only plants I bought were the CP's. Everything else was from seed.

I really wish I had some pix of the CP's from last year. I had read they couldn't be grown in containers to much effect but I would like to think we proved that wrong last year! We gave copious amounts of tomatoes away and had plenty to cook down to a nice thick sauce that we use for spaghetti and pizza and Mexican dishes. We had some huge 6'-8' monsters! I had to use bamboo poles driven 12" into the ground to support them. And that's on top of the 30" landscape pots we used which I got for free from a crew installing some landscaping in a new development.


Anyway...on to the meat of the act. I'm looking for good info on using cold frames to get a jump start on the season. I know I'll have to adjust things to my zone and all, and I've collected quite a few quality window panes from my local landfill dumpsite to use on this project and actually have both halves of a sliding glass door(double pane) that can cover a huge area. I'd like to use those to get some melon hills started in the ground (way)early. And of course the other frames would be devoted to the CP's and various other veggies and flowers we might choose to grow this coming season. I WON'T be growing 13 CP's this season but will be starting seedlings for pretty much everyone who got some of the bounty last year! :-)

If it wasn't obvious from the above all this will be done on the cheap, but I'm a resourceful little rat so don't be afraid to suggest anything of relevance! And unfortunately a subscription to DG is not really a reality at the moment, unless there's a Dave's Garden 2.0 Depression '10 website I don't know about please refer only to free info!

Oh yeah - I'm in Central Virginia in the Lynchburg area, so any local guidance is especially appreciated!

http://www.finegardening.com/how-to/articles/4-ways-to-use-cold-frame.aspx

I'm thinking just starting seedlings for early spring, the cold frame will give you a couple weeks jump start.

Thanks for the link! Of course the day after I posted the question my comp crashed! I finally got the time to get it back up and running again.

cold frames can get you a zone warmer . basically you can start 4-6 weeks earlier. for example - you may want to start your cabbage and spring broccoli this weekend.
-joe-

I really need to do a LOT of reading!! And preparing!! Alas it's been so incredibly wet this year - for most of us, that doing any real work in the yard is out of question. I'm actually wishing for a hard freeze so I can walk back to the compost heap without sinking 2 inches!

The 4-6 week thing sounds great!! So I just figure out when the crops I wish to grow - just a few, can safely go outside and subtract 6!! I suppose keeping an eye on the weather and the groundhog wouldn't hurt either!

I'm hoping to expand this year with some baby lima's and a few different heirloom tomatoes. And the Sugar Baby as opposed to a 25lb Grey.
And a pumpkin! Which I want to trellis. While looking for a lost cat once I was technically on my neighbors property when I happened to notice a 10-15lb, perfectly formed pumpkin growing in the gnarled branches of a dead Virginia pine. It was hanging in mid-air about 6feet up and had grown from their previous years jack o' lantern which they tossed in the woods. Plus I LOVE pumpkin pie!!

Keep the tips coming!
Thanks again Joe!

What a great idea... I wonder if peas, cukes and squash can trellis up trees as well?... that would be a great help

In virginia, you should have root crops in a cold frame probably early march.. start seeds now. you can start your summer veggies by april. Does your frame move? tomaloes, and especially eggplant and pepper LOVE the warmer temps.

Ya know - after having seen that those several years ago it never actually dawned on me that I could use a tree like that until just now! I wonder if cukes and apple trees have any aversion to one another? I've read about companion planting but no one has ever mentioned trees in what I've read. I'm leaning towards trying with the apple trees since they're nice and compact and the foliage isn't as thick as some other trees due to pruning.
WOW - this forum is great! I just found several new places to plant!!

Yes some of my frames are small and mobile. Or will be built that way at least! I'm going to use the massive double-paned sliding glass doors for the watermelon mounds and those will be pretty much in place until they can be safely removed.

Looks like the hardest part of getting the frames together is going to be a lack of construction sites in the area. You can usually approach the superintendent on a job site and ask about scavenging lumber scraps and other useful "trash" items and they'll usually let you have your way with the dumpster! Our construction techniques in this country generate a LOT of (useful) waste. I know a guy who added a room to his house with left overs from construction sites!