Think of those crops you'd normally put in a vegetable garden considered 'cool weather' crops. Where it says can take light frost, or put out after danger of frost. We don't get consistent night temps of sixty until may or later. And our nights then are anything above freezing. Anything you'd plant out by then in your garden is going to do fine with cool and I mean COOL night temps. You'll get sufficient day temps with just the solar gain on sunny days and a little help from your heaters on dark ones. You'll also want to consider that there won't be any pollinators in your g'houses over winter. Leafy crops are cool, because who cares? LOL. Your seeds will be germinated before winter sets in and even at 55, with domes you'll have sufficient heat to germinate most everything. If I am actively growing tender seedlings, I set my stat at 55. If I am not, I may even set it lower. If I am just running cold crops and holding over annuals for the next season forty five is fine. At those temps I find things like lantana get purplish from the temps, but survive and quickly snap back when temps are raised.

I have actually thought about that, Orchiddude. My husband and I were talking about such things the other night, like, should we buy a place now to "retire to" at the beach? Or somewhere else? That gave me pause. I thought, how could I move all my plants? Of course, I WOULD. I told him I wouldn't ever move unless the plants could go too. Either to a frost free zone, or another large greenhouse/conservatory. Many of my orchids are mounted and all it would be would be a snip snip and away it goes. Broms can be dug up and stuck in boxes and whisked away. ANthuriums and philos...ditto, just dig and pot. ANy large palm trees might be a problem....I would most likely try to dig them up and take them if possible. But everything that can go, WILL go. When we moved out here to this house from ourhouse in town, it took 5 full loads with a UHAUL truck to get all my plants out here. And that was JUST PLANTS, nothing else, and it was the middle sized truck, not the small one. A friend of mine and I spent all day doing it, over 12 hours. If I die, I plan to will my plants to some Botanical Gardens. If Kanapaha gardens here actually builds the almost $1 million concervatory they have planned, they would be a logical choice. If not, I am not certain. I only know that my husband and daughter have no interest in my plants. Of course, I could always will to FRIENDS (wink wink)

Yes Floral_uk is right. Could be the South for example which requires a completely different strategy. If I sowed seed where I lived I would battle to get any flowers at all as they only flower in their second season. So you need to start seedlings the year before plant them out Autumn then they will flower in Spring early summer the following year. As we don't have a suitable cool enough summer to start them off I could only sow in winter and they would die when Spring arrived because of the heat and humidity. If I had a cool green house with fans, air-con and a mister I could of course but thats an awful lot of trouble for what is an annual bedding plant in our "zone". So Im lucky the Dutch do it for me. I tried foxgloves (grown in Japan) for the first time this year but they appeared on the market too late to work, only now sending up miserable flower spikes which is too late. Foxgloves have the same growth, "biannual" as Campanula medium. If that helps you Amanda. They don't live much beyond two years but in suitable climates will happily self seed. I just thought I should say that this year we had quite a stable cool dry winter season and I've had Campanula medium, the same plants I bought in bud last year in early December "Autumn" flowering and performing stunningly well for more than four months! They very slowly open their buds, keeping the open flowers for ages and ages in mint condition, well well after all the buds have opened. Winter is our dry season so watering is required, not excessively, just to keep moist. I think the lack of rain actually is a big plus for the longevity of the flowers and the fact I planted in shady conditions. Our humidity is never much bellow 60% even in the dry season. We are in our fifth month and the temps have gone into 26-28%C, this week 30-31%C with 80-90% humidity and still there are flowers! It's truly remarkable. Much smaller flowers but the plants haven't wilted yet. Sure they will and very soon, though. What I did after three months and a half of solid performance was remove all the spent flowers that had partially formed green leafy seed capsules, this made them produce many smaller new buds, the ones still flowering now. I would love to get the crisp white ones next year but I haven't seen them here at all. Maybe "Bells of Holland" the shorter variety only come in pink and purple. Highly recommended as a winter annual or bedding plant in sub-tropical climates if you can buy them already established, in full bud. Choose the plants where the buds are not open, just a sprinkle of the larger top buds open. Our temps don't fall much bellow 10- 15% in winter and not much higher than 20-23 %C so for Canterbury bells it's like one long mild late Spring early summer. For Southern gardens in the USA including parts of Florida, right up to Miami with no frost, winter is the time to enjoy! Plant producers and buyers for retail take note. They outperform even things like busy tizzies and bedding begonias. I planted in the shade with only an hour or so of passing sun a day.

I know I'm not saving money in the short term. I've only had my community plot for three seasons, after a long break from gardening. My start up costs were "re-start" up costs. And still, I'm building soil, learning what plants work well in this microclimate, finding my way… I'm not taking the least expensive route. I have to say that the other benefits mentioned ARE a cost factor. We pay dearly here in CA for organic produce with the water shortage, and it's only going to get more expensive. But I know I am not gardening efficiently enough to maximize the space for production and savings. If I concentrated more on actively succession planting and intercropping, I would. I think over the long term, I will save money eventually. In the mean time I am content to save on therapy and anti-depressants.