I would think this is no different than growing in containers during the summer. Not letting it dry out I think is more important than soil temps. Depending on what you want to grow, the warm soil temps could be beneficial.

I'm going to try and nail a couple of 8" X 10 ft peices of pine together to make a V then cut some supports to cradle the V.

I'm trying to help out my parents who dont have a good area to plant directly in the ground. Trying some haricoverts green beens. I've planted these before and they seem to not need very deep soil so we'll see how that works.h

Most of my gardens are raised beds - they get extra warmth in spring when they need it and prevent many of the ground rotting we get around here. It's so easy to mulch them and for water conservation they are fantastic! Don't worry about "heat" - they are further off the ground and hence get a little more breeze as well (depending on how raised they are) and more aeration. SO much easier on pest management too because you can isolate/cover/treat just one bed at a time. In winter you can cover the entire thing with mulch and leaves, toss on some chicken wire and you are good!

-Marie

Scott, I'm curious how you are going to do it with "no direct contact of the soil with the ground"...?