Dale - I am new to this greenhouse thing as i built mine last year but i am greatly encouraged that not only is an unheated GH useful in the Winter, it is downright astounding! I had just about covered my GH last October. There were some things left undone. For a lark i planted peas and beets in November and had some small plants by time Winter really set in (Mid December). My peas were about 6 inches high when the cold stopped growth. By mid-January, both started growing again and i harvested fresh beets and peas in march. I also planted peas, carrots, greens, broccoli and more beets in march. Harvested my first broccoli in may. They didn't do well due to the double layer restricting the light with 3 plants producing what one might in full sun... but it was FRESH!. Those that i transplanted outside did much better. The peas i planted in november lasted well into summer and grew to over 11 FEET tall! didn't produce great, but it was fun to watch. The peas i planted in march were the most prolific i have ever had! My GH is not normal though. I based it on the "Solaroof" concept, basically a greenhouse within a greenhouse. I have 24 inches of airspace on the sides and 32" at the peak. I have a door on one end and the other is 24" air space. My doors are just single layer of plastic. Above the doors to the peak is my vent. It is just open to the air. I did that thinking i might get away with less fans needed letting the heat naturally rise and vent. I did staple a single sheet of poly at night and took it off during the day. Temps in January still exceeded 90F at times. I did see some freezing to the crops at night but it always recovered. Whe had several nights below zero. A five gallon pail of water might have 1/4 inch of ice on it but the ground never froze. Where i have my door, i did staple a single sheet of plastic bridging the the dead air space so it wouldn't get infiltrated with too much air, but it wasn't sealed. I also neglected to seal much of one end. There was plastic there but the wind would get into the dead air space. The idea behind the solaroof is that the air space gets filled with soapbubbles at night and is allowed to drain during the day. Wasn't much data available on the net as to it's true effectiveness but it made some sense to me. I have not gotten to the soap part... yet! This year: - I will have the ends sealed. - I will add a second layer of plastic on my doors so i have a 2" airspace on the doors. - I will have 2" foam board that i can use to close the gable vents at night. - I have a 1500 gallon wire frame fish tank inside the greenhouse to test whether that also helps to moderate temps and to see what types of fish might survive. Some things i noticed. - It rains inside the greenhouse! I am hoping once i seal the outside walls, less air infiltration will mean less condensation inside. - The steel frame gets HOT. I may rig something up to circulate water to the peak and run down the inside of the pipes to an indoor tank conserving heat. I will only do that if the other steps don't moderate night temps. - Do not start your outside plants too early! I started mine in February/march and in early may the greenhouse temps were so high and the plants were so large that i needed to water twice a day and they would still wilt. Of course, i planted lots of extras and being my first experience, i didn't have the room or pots to put them in 3" pots, so they stayed in the 6-packs. Next year i plant what i will use and transplant into larger pots... maybe start them later too. All in all, i have been amazed at what survives and grows. I plan to sow all sorts of cool weather things just to see what happens. Play and have fun. Poppa

I bought a 6 X 8 one about 12 years ago. still standing here at the JerseyShore, even thru Sandy. BUT one of my windows blew out. we tried taping, caulking, to no avail. it's now sitting in its place on top on the greenhouse but with a stiff wind it'll blow off again. I don't want to spend the money to replace it, but I would take any suggestions as to what else I can use up there. you really can't screw or hammer since the parts are all plastic. ugh. also yes, it gets over 100 in there on any given summer day. so I go in there basically in the spring and fall. I have an outside cat that uses it for shelter. I can winter over some perenials in pots and start seeds in the spring. also looking to make it cuter in there. that's all I got. thanks!!

I work for a company that provides live plants to offices. I don't think most of them would be interested. Nothing personal, but we have our suppliers that we are comfortable with, and we tend to prefer foliage plants that are not challenging or messy or difficult to get through a winter indoors; we don't use the types of plants you have. We also need something that will stay put year round, so we wouldn't be taking it just for the winter. Maybe the school/university route would more likely to work out for you. Good luck! BTW, I know the feeling of wanting someone to take my 13 tropical hibiscus into a greenhouse all winter. I finally bought a ton of growlights and turned a spare bedroom into my "indoor greenhouse".

Yes, they are palm seedlings. Here is another update. I spent yesterday working in the greenhouse making several improvements. It was a cold 18 degrees outside, but with the wood stove in the greenhouse fired up, it was a comfortable 75-85F inside. The first thing I did was build some shelves that span between the walls and the posts. These shelves are 7 feet off the ground, and they will allow me a place for seed trays and other small plants. I figured I needed to maximize my cubic footage and this seemed like a no-brainer way to go. Here is a picture of the new shelves standing at the greenhouse door -- looking in. I will be leaving the center section open and that is where I can place really tall plants. Several thousand windmill palm seeds occupy this shelf. I also installed and exhaust fan / motorized intake shutter in my greenhouse. This is connected to a thermostat that I have set at 85 degrees. So, when it hits 85F in the greenhouse, the motorized intake shutter will open and the exhaust fan will kick on. I designed it so that the system replaces ALL the air in the greenhouse each minute. Yeah -- rapid cooling. Today when I tested the system, it cooled the greenhouse from 77F to 70F in 6 minutes. Should work great in March, April, May when it's sunny. I don't want it getting up in the 90s or 100s in there. That will stall plant growth. Here is a picture of the exhaust fan and you can see the other shelf that is empty for now. Here is a picture of the motorized intake. (It's inside the sheet metal fitting). I built the sheet metal fitting so that the intake air is directed toward the center of the greenhouse. There it will mix with the box fan air and get dispersed through the greenhouse fairly evenly. I needed the fitting so that the cold air doesn't blow directly across my plants on the table. When the system is running, the air really rushes in from outside!! Closeup showing the actual damper motor and shutter. Here are some other miscellaneous pictures. These are last year's windmill palm crop. Musa basjoo and croton hanging out. Meyer lemon still blooming. Some pups that I separated from my bananas when I dug them up in fall. The parent's are stored dormant in my basement. I will never separate bananas in fall again, though. These have languished all winter even though it's warm in the greenhouse. I attribute this to the short days -- just not enough sun for good growth. I hope they make it. Closeup. I see them finally starting to push up, so I'm holding out hope. Fresh strawberries in January? Oh yeah!! Nice and warm in there tonight!! Thanks for looking!