I'm asking because I live in Zone 5 (New england) and our lowest temp has been -11F this winter and i do not heat my GH. I have had NO frost in the soil (Some frost damage to most plants) and have successfully grown some more hardy plants through the winter. This has been a complete surprise to me when everyone continually seems to frown on winter crops. While i can't tell you the temps in my GH (No thermometer) i can tell you what survived. Spinnach - Suffered no freeze damage at all. Planted late november and harvested my first crop early January and a second crop early in february and it's ready for a third picking now. Shallots. One planting in late november grew to 3" and has pretty much stayed that way with some new growth in the last week. Tips had some browning (1/2" or so) but no fatalities. Another crop sowed in mid december sprouted in late Jan. but stopped growing after reaching about 1". The cold really took hold in january and this is what stopped them from growing more. Just showing some signs of new growth now. Brussel sprouts... sown in November and just sprouted in the past week. Peas: Planted in late november. Reached about 18" in early january when the temps plumeted. They took some damage and most died back to about 1: above the soil. They were now sending out new strong growth, but i decided to resow and got rid of them. Batchelor buttons: came up from seed in the soil (grew theses for my daughter's wedding in sept. and these were self sown. They grew all winter and are now about 12" and healthy. Beets: grew well until early January when temps plummeted. I will replant as voles really did a number on the roots. Lettuce: has done well from the november sowing and continues to grow (About 6" across now). took some root damage from the voles. Some damage due to temps... wilting and such. The remaining plants look fine. Strawerries (ogala(?) everbearing): flowered all winter but berries would turn black. I also tried some tropicals to see what would happen. Bananas were wiped out early december. Oranges and lemons have lost most of their leaves but they may come back. Hardy kiwi looks fine but regular kiwi may not have survived but the vine is still pliable so i haven't given up hope. So you can see why i question what you mean when you say i may only have a margin of a couple of degrees. I wouldn't have thought ANY of this stuff would have survived at -9F if that was so. My goal is to design a GH that i can grow crops all winter without supplemental heat. Everything i read says it can't be done, but what i see has me questioning that. To date i have not added any active heat storing features. The one difference from a traditional GH is that mine is a double layered GH but rather than just having an inflated layer i have a permanant 2 - 3 feet of airspace between the envelopes. I expected just an extension of the seasons. It also is a decent size: Interior is 48' x 22' while the extrerion is 50' x 26'. Poppa

Hi, everyone! New to this forum, but not to GW. I am primarily on the Butterfly Gardening forum and the Oklahoma Gardening forum. I just bought my Baptisia australia var. minor last year. It looks identical but is just shorter and shrubbier. It is in full blooms right now. I bought mine in a 1 gal. pot and it had a couple of blooms at the time of purchase. I wasn't sure it would actually bloom this year because I have heard that it can take a few years to reach blooming size. So I was pleasantly surprised. Baptisia australis is the 2010 Perennial Plant of the Year, and I am so glad they chose this beautiful native plant. It rightfully deserves the accolades. As a butterfly gardener, I bought this plant as a host/larval host for the cute little Wild Indigo Duskywings (the common name for this plant is Wild Indigo). Lo and behold I found a group of them last year, and they overwintered as tiny caterpillars to emerge this spring as soon as the foliage did. They are so small, you will barely notice anything at all on your foliage unless you are specifically looking for them. It can also be a host for the Dogface Sulphur butterfly. Neither of these caterpillars will do any noticeable damage to the plant since they are quite small. I am so glad I purchased this plant last year. Your photo of your plant is lovely PrairieMoon2. "Minor" is about 2' tall after planting last year. And that is probably the maximum height for this shorter version. Susan

Lindrusso, I agree, lasagna gardening is not foolishness. I started a herb bed two years ago using the lasagna method, and enlarged it this past winter, using nothing but cardboard, leaves, used coffee grounds (UCGs are a great green, BTW!) and soil. (I know, most lasagna gardening gurus say you don't need soil, but it worked for me). I let the leaves and UCGs sit and decompose over the winter, covered with burlap, stapled into the ground with those big garden staples to keep it all from blowing away. Then in the spring I topped it all off with garden soil, and planted tomatoes. I dug down through the decomposed cardboard to plant the tomatoes, and they grew like crazy! A real jungle, it was awesome. I am never going to till another garden bed. I've never used peat in a lasagna bed, and I only put kitchen wastes into my compost bin. You should definitely dig and bury the kitchen scraps to keep the critters at bay. I believe that burying kitchen scraps in existing beds is called trench composting. You mighty try googling that phrase. So, to sum up my responses to your questions....... 1. I am very interested in being able to use scraps from the kitchen. I have read that many folks compost right in the beds rather than (or in addition to) having a compost heap. If I do this, can I just scatter the kitchen scraps right on top of the bed or do I need to cover the scraps each time to prevent pests, flies, etc.? Don't scatter, bury. 2. If I do need to cover kitchen scraps, I would use brown material, right? Do you all keep a supply of brown material at hand for tossing on the pile when you need to cover things like kitchen scraps? Like maybe a large trash can filled with leaves or something? When I bury the kitchen wastes in my compost pile, I almost always top them with a layer of browns, usually shredded paper, of which I have many, many bags. 3. After I add a layer of something like hay or straw, do I need to top off with something with a little weight to hold it in place? Seems to me stuff like that would blow away! Burlap and staples works well to keep stuff from getting blown away. 4. What sorts of things do you all use as the very top layer when planting in the spring? I've read that grass clippings can be used - this appeals to me as this is the most readily available item because we have a large lawn and it's free - best of all. I use soil. And I don't mulch with anything right now, but I plan to start mulching next year with shredded leaves. When I used grass clippings, I too ended up with grass growing in the bed. 5. If I use things like corn husks or plant refuse (non-diseased, not weeds) - can I just throw them in and leave them on top or do I need to cover or do anything else to them? I would bury plant refuse just like I do the kitchen scraps. 6. Is there anything in the kitchen that is particularly bad for attracting pests (besides the obvious no-nos like meats, etc.)? By the time I get around to composting my kitchen scraps, they are usually pretty slimy anyway, and the only critters interested in them at that stage are earthworms and the rest of what you'll hear referred to around here as "the microherd." I hope you find my comments helpful. Alison

Ive never tried lasangna gardening, but so far as piling material around the small tree- i have a rose of sharon in a corner where I garden. It literally sprang up out of nowhere. I hate it and tried to chop it down, but i got lazy, and so I piled around it. Much to my dismay, it's still alive. So I dont think you'll kill your tree, either. As for the bush, i'm not so sure. The only thing that I would consider with lasagna gardening is the drainage. I once asked my ladscaper if I could just layer 2-3 feet of soil on top of my grass, and he told me that the drainage would become an issue unless I ripped out the grass... and then at that point, you might as well just plant normally. Things like carrots might have a problem if the material isn't deep enough. I tried carrots in a 2 ft deep container, and they were still pathetic little things.