Ruth Stout's no-work garden

I love the concept of a no-work garden. Ruth Stout popularized this technique and became the queen of mulch. Basically, you have a perpetual layer of mulch in your garden. The bottom layers break down into rich soil while the top layers smother weeds. We don't have enough of a garden plot to do this, but it's a wonderful idea to try out if I ever get some actual garden space. You can read more about her system here:
http://www.motherearthnews.com/Organic-Gardening/2004-02-01/Ruth-Stouts-System.aspx

For now, I will have to content myself with a garden of many containers and one tiny strip of soil in my mostly-concrete back yard. No mulching necessary in that case. One of the advantages of container gardens is that weeding is incredibly easy, if you need to do it at all.

This weekend, I plan to get some more rich soil from my local garden center. We have some extra containers to fill up and that strip of soil in the yard needs a bit of amending. I also want to start hardening off my seedlings and it is now that I realize a cold frame of some kind would be useful.

The problem I have is that you're supposed to expose the seedlings to the outside environment with good sunlight slowly. So you start with putting the plants one or two hours outside and then increase the time outside every day. Once acclimated, you can reduce transplant shock when you finally do plant them outside. Unfortunately, I am not around at home during enough daylight hours to do this. In the morning, I am rushing out so I'll have no time to put the plants out, wait an hour or two and the bring them back in. In the evenings, it's often already dark when I get home or there's only an hour left of the setting sun. A cold frame would allow you to put the plants outside but still protect them from harsh elements and frost.

There is one other way to harden off plants, which is to withhold water from them until they show signs of wilt and then water them. Do this repeatedly for two to three weeks and they'll be ready for the outside. However, I am loathe to try this as I can't stand to see my seedlings wilt.

So for now, I put a few of the lettuce seedlings inside a deep, empty planter outside in a relatively sunny spot. It's not covered at the top, but the plants are protected on all sides. I am considering getting a clear covering for the planter and this will serve as a makeshift cold frame for now. If they plants in this setup doesn't die in the next few days, I arrange for more seedlings to be place outside in covered planters.