If the wireless deer fence really works, that looks like a nice solution. From people who have dealt with deer, though, I would expect they might just learn to avoid it ... just as they learn to accept the motion-activated sprinklers. I've heard that an electrified wire that runs around the garden generally works well, as does clear fishing line strung at their chest height and "ankle" height ... they can't see it, but can feel it and become confused and avoid it. They can jump quite high, but need room in order to do so; therefore, two parallel fences spaced just right will deter them - they have to be far enough apart that the deer cannot clear both in one jump, but close enough that they can't get the start they need to clear the second. Some people install these fences at an angle, but that becomes quite space-intensive. As others have already stated, keeping the greenhouse cool in spring and summer would be a real problem, especially for those cool-weather crops you're planning. The shade house idea is a good one, however, and I'm wondering if you could get away with some type of tunnel-type structure covered with bird netting or some other mesh. For an easy-to-build frame, have you seen the faux bamboo stakes and connectors? Sort of like a large Tinker-Toy set for adults/gardeners. Gardener's Supply has them. Actually, greenhouser, deer are becoming more and more a problem in suburban areas. We're creating the perfect habitat for them. Deer actually dwell at the woods' edge, seeking shelter inside and food in the adjacent meadows ... whether that "meadow" be wild or someone's lawn and gardens. Their natural predators all but gone and an abundant food supply, their numbers increase until population pressures force them to move outward to new areas. Deer seem to be extremely adaptable and, as evident in some previous posts, become used to living around people, even standing their ground, blithely munching away on choice specimens, as a homeowner/gardener advances trying to shoo them away (I've seen it on video). Squirrelypete, I don't know that it would be any comfort to your hubby, but my dad, who loved fishing, held the philosophy that the fish got itself caught because of its own greed: it thought it was eating something else; so he had no qualms about eating it (though he'd never have hunted).

I have two cherry tomato plants but one got late blight so i quarantined that ass with the quickness. but my last plant which is marvelous is in a deep water culture has many flowers but they keep falling off! i have made a buzz-pollinator out of a vibrating razor handle and a toothbrush head. I've also made a centrifugal dremmel out of a cap on the end of the dremmel with a spinning cotton swab in the middle. But theres been some freakishly hot weather since the flowers opened! anybody have an idea where to buy pollen perhaps? or any surefire over-the-top ways to make this work(cooling methods, trapping a bumblebee in my room for the day)? I dont want the past 80 days to be for nothing. The mornings have been about 80F reaching 93F noon.

That size is pretty small to do more than season extension or grow a few greens but it seems like you're on the right track. I started with a 15x40 and ended so far with a 30x96'. The bigger you go the easier it is to mellow the temperature extremes but harder it is to heat if you want to overwinter delicate crops. I transplant herbs like Rosemary and Lavendar in minr for overwintering and they survive very well but I'm about to hang it up for my tomatoes. Heat costs need to be weighed against benefits. So I guess I'd suggest against overwintering anything delicate and concentrate on maybe keeping a few greens going if that fits your needs.

Vicci - We are in Southeast Ohio (on the zone 5/6 borderline) and often considered building a greenhouse. But after the first year of winter sowing I changed my mind. This was part of my WS set up in Feb 2009. That's how it looked after major ice storms, and an 8 day power outage followed by another 5 day one less than a week later. The only repair work I had to do from the ice storms was to re-clip a few strings. With milk jugs I would not even have had to do that. Those ice storms, and the damage they did to trees and power lines in the area convinced us that we didn't want to try to build a green house and then have to worry about structural damage or plant loss during typical Ohio springs. A greenhouse is also tricky to try to manage around here during the February heat waves - it could be very hard to keep from cooking your plants in a greenhouse on those days. The final thing that swung my decision on a greenhouse is that I could get a lot more "greenhouse" space for far less cost with my set up, and expand it or decrease it easily from year to year if I wanted. This is what one of the bags looks like up close: Instead of propping it up, I ended up hanging lines from overhead wires and clipping the bags with metal binder clips - but the final version was quite similar. Each tray gave me 1.68 square feet of growing area. I planted around 100 trays and something like 500 gallon pots (6 to the bag) that year - so that would have taken about 200 square feet of greenhouse area if they were jammed in tight (not leaving me any room to walk in and look at them.) Allowing for access paths in the greenhouse I'd have needed around 400 square feet for my 2009 sowing. And then in 2010 I'd only have needed half as much. Who knows what I'd need for next year - but with WS I can plant however much I want without worrying about having enough space in a greenhouse. Now having space in the garden? That's a different story. :) With this year's winds early in the year I was glad again that we didn't go for a greenhouse. We had enough stuff to clean up and repair without dealing with damaged glass or racing to rebuild a section of greenhouse before the cold killed the plants. We now got a number of our neighbors hooked on WSing and they've put their plans for greenhouses on hold. If you do live in one of the areas that can get winter ice and wind damage you might find that WSing works even better for you and with a lot risk. Lynda