Thank you Shawn and Suzi for the tips on Thuja Green Giants and how to get shrubbery cheap. I *have* considered arborvitae, which probably would go best with the current look of the house, and are fast-growing. bmh4796, I looked up English Laurel, and it's handsome and a fast grower, but aren't the leaves toxic? Maybe I could plant a line of arborvitae and then add some more colorful or interesting plants at their bases? Anyway, because I had them and didn't know what else to do with them, I put some 4 inch lilacs in the ground already, and a 2 day cold snap promptly blackened their leaves. Undaunted, I stuck a white Beauty of Moscow on the corner next to the twin trees, hopefully far enough behind the hydrant to not run into trouble. I don't know what I'm doing here... hope it doesn't look too weird. The more I consider, it seems like I need to come up with an overall plan for the house instead of just buying plants I like and poking them in here and there. I suppose the tiny lilacs will stay there until I find a sale on Thuja, or save up enough for a stone wall. I'm afraid that whole area is probably solid rock underneath. There are a couple of large (2 foot long) outcroppings of stone that look like they extend underground. Wish I could show you but I still can't find my camera!

Don't give up yet... any type of electric heating device- soil warming cable, germinating pad, etc., with the plastic cover, would give you several degrees of frost protection. Anything more than a few degrees would require a more expensive heating arrangement, and probably a double layer of plastic with an air space in-between on the top. (working like double-pane windows) Your house walls may be absorbing enough heat during the day to give off some help during the night, which might explain the inner rows of plants doing better than the outside ones. One more consideration with the plastic cover- during full sun days (even in the winter), the inside temp. will probably be very warm, too warm for the plants. You would need to be sure and open it up during those times to keep your plants growing well.

I will add my 2 cents. I'm assuming you only intend to start plants in it and not grow anything in the winter or any other time? If so then I feel you should be fine. If you are wanting to grow things in it during the fall/winter then I would say you need a south exposure. I built my lean to with a south exposure. Because I intend to grow tomatoes and maybe a few other things in it till at least the first of the year. I did this year and really miss the tomatoes now. I had to pull shade cloth over mine. I need to install some more ventilation. For now I use a fan in one of the two utility room windows that open into it. With that and the shade cloth my temps reached the low 90's today with the outside temp around 80. I talked to most of the greenhouse owners/growers around here. And most said for what I wanted to do I would need southern exposure. The way I have mine shaded is I shade the direct overhead sunlight over the north 2/3 of the top. Plants that are adjusted to the sunlight I can locate on the south side and they get strong sunlight. Smaller plants and those that I'm hardening off I locate in the center and on the north wall. It works great. Like Skybird stated by locating it with an east exposure you will make starting and hardening off plants easier. And if you need to extend the length of the time they receive light you could supplement with artificial lighting. Jay

midnightsmum, it would be helpful to know what sort of plants you hope to overwinter and how many you have. I live on a farm in Alberta, and we built a new house several years ago, making good use of passive solar (orienting the house and planting trees to help keep the house cool in summer and warm in winter). We put in lots of large windows with wide window sills. In the dining room, we have nine windows on three walls (east, south, and west exposure) plus a garden door, and under the windows we have base cabinets under all the windows for storage, so I can fit a lot of plants there in the fall; the bougainvillea has bloomed for the past two springs in that location. In my bathroom, there are two large windows at the corner (east and south) over the corner tub, where I overwinter five citrus trees which continue to bloom and bear fruit through the winter. We also have a tower on one corner of the house (rather Victorian style) which has west, north, and eastern exposure and I was surprised when my hibiscus started blooming there this past April. I have a lot of geraniums that I overwinter and they bloom throughout the winter; my mother-in-law has me overwinter hers, and I keep them in our heated garage on a old kitchen table in front of the window (lots of windows in our garage too lol) and they bloom constantly through the winter; I know I should give them a rest but there is nothing cheerier in this part of the world in November or February than an entire tableful of blooms. We have a two-story house with basement and I have plants at almost every window on the first two floors (not the pantry or main floor bathroom). The plants range in size from a very small haworthia to a good-size monstera and a split-leaf philodendron. The main key to success in overwintering for me has been to bring them in sooner before the day length gets too short. I also make good use of the showers and the tub in my bathroom for the plants all winter, giving them all a rinse; the plants use the tub more than I do : ) . One shower has a detachable shower head, and it's so handy that I wish I had put them in all of the bathrooms I do have a heated free-standing greenhouse which I use from early May to late September. And I have a three-tier light cart I use in the spring for seed-starting; it's nearly 30-years old and I used to have it before I was married to grow tropicals in my city apartment. The only other recommendation I have if you intend to go ahead with an attached greenhouse is to talk to a company like BC Greenhouses, where my freestanding greenhouse is from. They talked me through all of our climate considerations for our location (wind, usual snow load, hail, etc) to help me choose the correct specs, inc roof slope, for my greenhouse. They generally have a sale every fall. https://www.bcgreenhouses.com/greenhouses/cross-country/home-attached-greenhouses/ Working with both an architect and a company like BC Greenhouses should get you the best living situation for people *and* plants.