Thanks for the garden tour. I like the Arbutus trees popping up. It's nice to see what other exotic plant growers are doing in the garden. Someone gave me a palm of at least $150 in value today for sharing of info. If it had been a Windmill palm I'd plant it now. But it's a type of C. humilis so I'll wait until next spring to plant it. It's the second time this year that BC gardeners hand me a palm for the garden. They see that I'm trying to form a dense palm planting. My big Cordys are there as fillers until the younger palms rise to take over. Here's a garden pic from the lower mainland. This bluish Euc contrasts with the green foliage. To the right is giant reed. I planted a variegated form. Cheers Here is a link that might be useful:

At just under $1000 the polycarbonate greenhouses are worth it I think. When we moved to our acreage there was an existing greenhouse with an attached potting shed. The potting shed has a trap door and steps to go into the basement of the shed...that is where I store all the empty assorted trays, pots and planters. When you step from the potting shed into the greenhouse you go down a little set of stairs..3 steps, so actually the greenhouse is about 3' into the ground. This means that the tables in the greenhouse are at about ground level. The original glass was broken in quite a few places so, we decided to redo the greenhouse about 5 years ago. With the cost of the new lumber for the frame and the lexan (polycarbonate) material we were able to buy here in a lumber store in our town, we figure it cost about $1000 (no labour costs cause we did it ourselves). I do not use it in the winter for the same reason that Glen mentioned...too expensive. But, I will just put a little space heater on in the spring (as Savonna mentioned) and it will be warm enough in there for starting my cannas and other plants. My DH also placed water pipes on the tables, covered them with sand and we can run warm antifreeze thru them to get bottom heat on the shelves in the greenhouse. I am very happy with the lexan. The mature trees in various locations around the greenhouse means that the greenhouse does not get 100% sun each day and yet the plants do well in there. It can get down to about -8C at night before the temps in the greenhouse get down close to freezing. So, with a little heater on, just for night, plants can survive in there for quite a while in the fall if I am not ready to bring them into the house yet. Which reminds me, when the weather is no longer at -42C but up to about -10C I need to get in there and organize the pots/soil/etc so that it is ready for spring once again. Brenda

I really dont like it when someone uses a gardening forum to bash people they disagree with politically. I also tire of trying to inform people about the farce global warming but I will never give up (LOL). I put this together for another gardenweb thread when someone crying about how global warming was going to doom our children and how we need to follow the advise of the experts at the UN. Here goes... In order to put public policy actions in place to combat global warming which could have negative effects on economic progress, the following should be true. 1. global warming is occurring (probably true). This is not all that unexpected since we may still be coming out of the little ice age which we know occurred at least from 1600-1850. Also warming is much smaller when measuring from satellite rather than from ground based measuring devices that are affected by urban heat islands. 2. the majority of the warming is due to man-made greenhouse gas emissions and not natural (questionable). Correlation between rising temperatures and CO2 is problematic. Ice core data appears to show that CO2 increases follow or lag higher temperatures and is therefore an effect and not a cause. Additional, the percentage of CO2 in the atmosphere is small (0.03 percent). Mans contribution to CO2 is a small percentage of CO2 (5%). CO2 contribution to global warming is small (4%). Much of the increase in CO2 due to man entered carbon sinks and is not still in the atmosphere (50%). 3. unnatural levels of global warming will occur during the next century (questionable) IPCC predictions have ranged from a 1.5C to 5.8C increase by year 2100 over the last ten years (needless to say the best answer may be they dont know) Computer models so far have done a poor job at predicting recent and past results. There is still a poor understanding of the global carbon cycle which makes any climate change due to CO2 unpredictable 4. The consequences of this warming will be disastrous (unlikely) Typically only negative aspects of warming is noted, positive consequences should be noted as well *Nighttime lows may be higher in temperate regions extending farming regions north *Increased CO2 encourages plant growth *Some desert regions (the Sahara in particular) may see increased rainfall based on historical data In addition, if changes to the climate take place it will be over long periods of time allowing for the adaptation and migration 5. we have enough knowledge to put in place world-wide policy action that can reverse the warming (unlikely) Also, any solution must be effective and be better than alternative actions (or inaction) and not produce unacceptable new problems. The thought of political leaders from around the world sitting around a conference table debating the best policy to put in place (and enforce) in order to keep 2100 global temperatures at a +0C increase instead of +2.5C is laughable. Fossil fuels are the life blood of the human economic engine that has improved the life of nearly every person on the planet. The level of proof for those wishing to change or effect the way we live is very high. The proof so far is quite lacking in my opinion. In addition, the proposed methods to combat this theoretical problem have been either impossible to implement or likely ineffective. Let the flame throwing begin. :) BTW. The 2003 map was very similiar to maps from the 1960's. Zones were lowered during the 70s and 80s when the earth went through 'global cooling'. Kind of blows that GW theory a little...

We got Canadian thistle under control glyphosate (studies that do not have friends of Monsanto involved or other conflicts of interest show it as 'carcinogenic' or 'probably carcinogenic' - it just wasn't worth the risk to my loved ones and neighbours). We moved into our house 5 years ago - 100' x 50', so the thistle seemed to take over our little yard. It was a nightmare. They grew in hardpan here, so pulling up WITH their roots is literally impossible without heavy equipment (the roots supposedly can grow up to 20' down). Here's what we tried: 1) On advice from experts we tried cutting them back when they were still young. They kept growing back, and more - probably from the roots getting stronger. 2) On advice from more experts we tried cutting them down just before flowering - the theory being that all their energy goes into flowering and they will eventually die this way. They kept growing back. Options 1 and 2 were very time-consuming and only a band-aid to the problem, so I tried number 3: 3) I did extensive research and found that the USDA did a study in 2002 and found that 20% vinegar (acetic acid) killed 80-100% of Canada thistle. So we sprayed them - young/small and old/large. I even tracked some that I sprayed to see if they regrew from the same roots, and those did not. For the really large ones (3-ish ft tall), I cut them back to 6" or less, then sprayed. Needed to hit them a few times because their root systems are probably very strong. I even sprayed a 3' tall one through the fence, in the neighbour's yard, and it worked - that one surprised me! For the first 2 years, we had to spray all summer because there were so many. Now we only need to spray weedlings occasionally - mostly in the hottest part of summer. Most of our neighbours still have a problem with them - they either don't spray with acetic vinegar or only spray after they have a lot of mature thistles. Canada thistle is now my least problematic weed. Still haven't gotten those dandelions under control, and oh, the horsetail weed! I know this is an old thread, but hope this helps anyone who finds it in search of help for this tenacious weed.