Over the past year, I have accumulated more than a few pieces of luggage from the trash. Recently, I came upon a beautiful blue suitcase only to discover it was pregnant with an equally as lovely mini-suitcase. With suitcases reproducing at such a rapid rate, I figured it was time I found some ways to reuse all this discarded luggage.

With my summer vegetables on their very last legs, I have been thinking about how to continue growing vegetables into the  colder winter months. In my search for a solution, I discovered cold frames, which are essentially tiny greenhouses (image on right). With limited space in my apartment, I thought it would be great to make a portable cold frame from an object built to travel…the suitcase.

I am still in the planning stages for this project, but I thought I would post some of my initial plans and then make some updates as I begin to build. I found a lot of helpful information in a great book titled, Build It Better Yourself by the editors of Organic Gardening and Farming. The book is full great projects for the garden and house, and has easy to follow construction drawings. After reading a section of the book on cold frames, I made a few sketches of how to transform a standard plastic suitcase into a space to capture the suns rays and grow plants into the winter months.

I designed it so that you can use the suitcase as the container in which to garden or remove the bottom and place it over an existing bed. I also wanted to make sure everything needed for the cold frame could be easily stored inside the closed suitcase. As usual, I’m sure some things will change as I begin to experiment with my materials, but hopefully the sketches give you an idea where I want this project to go.

I can’t wait to get started! Look for updates soon…