aezarien is right. A black cover would plunge your GH into darkness, at which point, you might as well shut it down for winter and move the plants into the house. As for leaving the aluminet up all year: If you experience so much sunlight you need shade in winter; are you sure you even need a solar cover? You might do as well by permanently lining your GH in bubble wrap, which will keep it warmer in winter and cooler in summer. Sort of like going from lightweight double to heavyweight triple polycarb, which may well be all you need in your climate.

OK, I guess I need to explain this a bit better. My point of the record snowfall on Christmas Day was that there was one day out of 100 years that the media, and other humans, seemed to think was important. You are correct, there is nothing really important about it. I think that all would agree that in the grand scheme of things, it really doesn't mean anything. Likewise, the climate change / global warming people are trying to do the exact same thing on a larger scale. Rather than pointing at one day in a 100 years, they are looking at one decade in 100 years. Don't you think, in the grand scheme of things, it would be much more scientific and honest to look at something on a similar scale? 1 day in 36,500 days or 10 years in 36,500 years? As far as the quotes, again, I was trying to demonstrate that the media is making a big deal of a one day event. This are all quotes from Denver's Channel 7 web site, www.thedenverchannel.com They are not anything I made up. Again, another example of sensationalism. As far as being bold, I'm not sure where that came from. I'm not trying to be bold, I'm trying to make people think for themselves. Things rarely happen in this country (this world) unless someone is out to make a buck. When recycling was all the rage, there were a lot of people out there willing to pay extra to 'save the planet'. Pay extra for what? Let's look at an example of this. You pay someone to recycle your newspaper. The trash company sells / pays some recycler to take it away. You buy products made from recycled paper, and if it is labeled as 'green', you can bet you will pay more for it, even though it cost less (in processing and environmentally) to produce than paper goods made from virgin paper or wood pulp. (Compare prices between paper towels at the grocery store.) As far as who is making money on the global warming / CO2 credit / CO2 exchange hype, take a look at Al Gore's site: http://www.climatecrisis.net/takeaction/carboncalculator/ Calculate your carbon footprint, and then go offset it by clicking on the text "OFFSET AN AVERAGE HOME or CAR NOW". It takes you to http://nativeenergy.com/pages/an_inconvenient_truth/29.php?afc=climatecrisis where YOU can PAY THEM $28 / month for THEM to use methane from a cow manure digester at THEIR dairy to heat and electrify THEIR farm. If you believe so strongly in this, how about paying me to grow some trees that I can donate to my town? It covers your carbon footprint, helps out the earth, makes me look good in the eyes of my community, and I can take the donation off on my taxes as a charitable contribution. Honestly, it's more effective than some of the other schemes out there that are being run by parent companies of logging companies who are convincing people to buy carbon credits, and then the companies replant clear cut areas in the Pacific North West. Another way of looking at this is to make people feel guilty about some problem (imagined...

Hi Heather, I just wanted to make a couple of comments. It seems most of your questions and concerns were addressed quite well already from other members, inlcuding tips about compost and mulch which I also really reccomend. About the mango. I can't tell you for sure because I live in the American Midwest, a completely different climate from yours! However, I love tropical plants,and especially mangoes as they are my favorite fruit, hence me being on this forum, so I've read as much as I can on them and have tried to grow tropicals in anyway possible, and I've visited Hawaii and South Florida often. Mangoes are grown all over India, and many parts of India are very hot and dry, with temperatures getting into the hundreds(farenheit). Supposedly they fruit better that way. I think the leaves should get used to the sun as it gets older. And as long as you are irrigating it and mulching it,and all of the other plants you plan to plant, I really think it should be ok. I would really try frangipanis again. Three of the four that I grow seem to be VERY drought tolerant and tough. It can get very droughty here in the summer and they are in pots, plus it's very windy too, so they dry out very quickly. I have a book on them and it mentions that frangipani trees grow wild in the Central American deserts, in rock crevices, among cacti. And I've noticed that they grow very well by the ocean. And they cast lots of shade. I would definitly try date palms. They are beautiful, love hot, dry weather, are salt tolerant, and produce delicious fruit. Antother palm that you could try is the pindo palm or jelly palm. They are supposedly very heat, cold, drought, and salt tolerant. And the fruit can be made into jelly. The sea grape is another option that might work. I believe that they are almost as salt-tolerant as coconut palms, and you can eat the fruit too. Autograph trees are also mildy salt tolerant. The sea almond mentioned above is a really good idea. Try a dragon tree, I think that would proabably thrive there. There are tree-like yuccas that you might want to consider. In fact I think a lot of succulents and cacti as well would be the way to go. Apparently Crinums are salt-tolerant too. There is also the sea lettuce. Bromeliads- I believe the species would be hoyas and puyas(I'm not a bromeliad expert). There are cycads that you could grow, and there is one in particular that thrives in hot, dry areas, unfortuneately I cant think of its name right now. Good luck with your gardens. I hope you can create a little paradise!

Readyami, thank you! We have some "mixed metaphors" going on with the Texas star decorations and the un-tiki gazebo, but I've always been kind of eclectic anyway, LOL! :-) Tim, thanks! When I was putting the skull up I was thinking "This belongs on Tim's pirate ship", haha! The ball is a Japanese glass fishing float (this one is actually a modern replica), a long time favorite decoration in tiki bars and restaurants the world round. It's as required a staple as the traditional hanging puffer fish lamp (I have one of those too) :-) Mostly they were hung indoors in arrangements of different colors and different heights and sometimes were lighted from within. I can't direct-link the photos, but if you look at the thread linked below (photos of vintage tiki bars) you'll see what I mean. They were also popular as A-frame decorations. My A-frame is actually a little teeny version of the real thing, the traditional A-frames built on restaurants and bars were enormous and had gigantic glass fishing float replicas, period light fixtures or even outrigger canoes hanging under them. Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.tikiroom.com/tikicentral/bb/viewtopic.php?topic=29982&forum=5&13