Thank you all for your wonderful comments. Rosepetal - Yes, the expense was a real surprise. I had been saving for years for this project and thought I had all the needed supplies. I am becoming so acquainted with Menards employess I fear we may be on first name basis if this project does not end soon. ;) I helped a friend tear down an old house and was able to salvage both the cabinets and the cedar siding. Too bad you do not think you will get your greenhouse completed this year. I'm worried I might now make it either. Next week the time changes so it will be less time available to work on this beast. Ole Dawg - Yes, I watched for anyone who was taking out their old sliding glass doors and was able to confiscate enough of them over the past 10 years to finish this project. All are double paned and glazed. I have had to remake some of the bases as some of the old doors were rotted a bit on the bottom. I used to be a girly girl so many of my friends are surprised at my change. ha ha. I guess when one wants something badly enough, they will work slow and steady to accomplish that dream. I do have to say, this has been one of the TOUGHEST physical challenges I've almost completed. Dawg, inside I have every nook and cranny insulated and will put on the sheeting over the insulation after I get the entire thing wired with electricity. I had a neighbor show me how to wire outlets and so I worked on that all evening. I even hooked up a 4000 watts heater. I know it won't be enough heat, but at least I can see how well that will do for me this year and adjust/add more heating next year. I also dug a 4' deep 5' X 12' wide pond in the greenhouse and once I have water in that I'm thinking it will really help hold in the heat at night. That might be this summers expense though. ;) Krayers - It sounds very exciting to be getting a BC greenhouse. They sure look beautiful. Had I known how much this thing ended up costing me...I would have selected a kit instead. ha ha. Once I have it completed and I forget the pain, I may change my mind on that statement. Mudhouse - I am adding a pond as I stated above and also have read about the solar pool covers. I think that may really help and I will have to eventually invest in something like this to assist with the heating costs. Thank you for the information on adding multiple photos. I will have to try that. Wyndyacre - Your greenhouse is absolutely gorgeous. I did have windows I was going to use. However, in the looonnng process of collecting materials some of them got broken. If they were that easy to break I did not want to use them. So in the end I purchased twin wall polycarbonate and framed them in to give them the appearance of windows with panes on the roof. I also added gutters and had the gutter empty into two large barrels that I picked up at a coke plant. They are very hard plastic and will withstand being full of water forever with out damaging. Stressbaby - I wondered about the moisture and how they would stand up. They are made of a really hard wood which I am thinking may be maple. But I agree that the moisture may wreak havoc on them. I am planning to repaint them using an outdoor oil based paint which can withstand quite a bit of moisture. I know I will have to be very diligent in keeping them painted and wiped down. I do a lot of hybridizing of lilies, daylilies and peonies, so the drawer space will be heaven. Thanks again everyone for allowing me to read all your valuable posts gaining such a great knowledge on things I should and should not do for my greenhouse.

So better to water it some every day or every other day so the soil stays moist? Noooooooo! Neither one. I have a friend in Phoenix (112 degrees today) who deep waters every 4 days when the temps get above 110. When it backs off into the 90s he waters every 7 days. This develops deeper, more drought resistant roots which can survive the heat at the surface. If your grass isn't making it from week to week watering, then water it now but longer than you did last time. In the mean time, simply mist over it to cool it off in the afternoons. You're just cooling the blades, not saturating the soil. Watering: Deep and infrequent is the mantra for watering. This is for all turf grass all over the place. Deep means 1 inch all at one time. Put some cat food or tuna cans around the yard, and time how long it takes your sprinkler(s) to fill all the cans. Memorize that time. That will be the time you water from now on. My hose, sprinkler and water pressure takes 8 full hours to fill the cans. Your time will likely be less. I like gentle watering. As for watering frequency, that depends on the daytime air temperature. With temps in the 90s, deep water once per week. With temps in the 80s, deep water once every 2 weeks. With temps in the 70s, deep water once every 3 weeks. With temps below 70, deep water once a month. Note that you have to keep up with quickly changing temps in the spring and fall. This deep and infrequent schedule works in Phoenix and in Vermont, so it should work for you. The reason for deep and infrequent is to grow deeper, more drought resistant roots and to allow the soil to dry completely at the surface for several days before watering again. If it rains, reset your calendar to account for the rainfall.

Your garden is looking great Esther, rain at the right times does wonders. When you first posted your mystery plant I knew it looked like an Orchid. It is Epipactis helleborine, I had just never seen such a nice specimen. Unfortunately it is considered invasive in some areas, spreading by seed. The ones that start here are usually a single stalk and they do not return the following year. Boy this forum is hopping and I am trying to get caught up!

Thanks, all! Yes KarenPA, there are lavenders, several kinds of salvias, catmint, several kinds of penstemon. The hail was so intense that it stripped leaves from the tress and most of the perennials. Even the grasses and lavender were damaged. Of course, most of the flowers were destroyed. Katob, that's a water feature/planter at the end of the path, the fountain is off in the picture. The grasses are in the planter portion of the feature. Posierosie: I had a lot of angst in deciding how to do the hardscape. I had a designer who designed a lot of meandering foot-paths through the planting areas, but I felt that the space needed a stronger statement to direct the focus to the feature which was there when we moved in. I had already removed the lawn which was the entire backyard, and I created this broad axis path instead. Thanks for compliment, and reassuring me that I made the right decision.