I finally decided on a brick paver floor and it is wonderful. It looks great and it maintains heat and moisture into the night, then maintains a cooler temp into the morning, saving on heating and cooling costs. The pavers were a freebie from my sis so I had to haul, stack, cut and lay them myself, but now that I see the results, it was well worth all the work. And I even like the color.

The shelves in my greenhouse didn't seem to be all that user friendly at first, but it is starting to feel right. They took some getting used to since I am short and they are set a little high for my comfort, but I am finding them to be more convenient at that height since they allow for alot of plants on the floor. Also I have "rafters" that are convenient for hanging planters. They also seemed like they were going to be too high for me, but the added height allows me to hang the planters and still be able to walk under them without bumping my head on pots.

When the greenhouse was built back in May, my first thought was, "Oh no, it's too small." A few weeks later, I thought, "Oh no, it's too big." Now it think it's cozy, comfortable and altogether delightful. It's an adequate size for what I want to do, but not so large that I feel overwhelmed. Many things are blooming, including my topical hibiscus and that makes me feel happy when I'm in there.

It has taken some time to figure out where the cooler zones and warmer zones inside the greenhouse are. I have moved some plants repeatedly to find the best location for each one. Everything seems to be happy and healthy now, although I have to confess that I did finally resort to a chemical insecticide to get rid of the whiteflies and aphids. I also had to use a fungicide on some of the plants before I got the ventilation systems working together to keep the air moving all over the room.

Maybe it's the cooler weather that has really perked up the plants (and maybe me too) and finally gotten the bugs under control. I did have several mantids that found their way into the greenhouse about a month ago, and the bug population took a nose dive after that. I just hope that I have baby mantids come Spring who will take up permanent residence in the greenhouse and help me out with that.

I like the location of my greenhouse with respect to the house and the potting shed. It's that nice working traingle arrangement that fits so well in a kitchen layout. The shed and greenhouse are the same distance from the house, about 70', and are about 20' apart. I can go from the greenhouse to the shed easily for related activities, and still keep an eye on the house. I wish the shed was a little bit larger cause I need the storage. And I don't want to stow potting supplies in the greenhouse. But it's nice because I have electricity in both structures so I can work early in the morning and late at night too.

I am still in the planning stage for the landscaping around my greenhouse right now. I cleared the earth of weeds and grass and have a tarp covering the bare soil. After it gets cold, I may lay down weed-stop fabric and mulch over it to maintain it until I decide what to plant.

There is a 4' wide path between the greenhouse and the vegetable garden that needs weed-stop and mulching too. The garden got away from me this summer while I was concentrating on the greenhouse and needs good cleaning and clearing soon. I wonder why my DH doesn't hurry up and do that?

At first the greenhouse seemed like it was going to be a lot of extra work and I was wondering what I had gotten myself into. Now I can't think of anything that I have spent money on in the past 20 years that I enjoyed more than my greenhouse. Cheryl