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 love reading this thread! Lots of great dreams. I like the idea of having a beverage and snack area in the kitchen. That would sure make my life easier as a lot of the time I'm just going in the kitchen for a cup of coffee and a muffin or a drink of water and my kitchen is in the back of the house. I would either buy or build a different house with my mega-millions. The kitchen would be the center of the home, not like mine is now, way in the back with no room for anyone to be in there. I'd get a fridge with METAL handles (what's with these plastic handles on fridges these days?!). One of the best things I ever had when I was young was an OLD and small fridge in one of my apts. but it had metal shelves that swung out so you could see what was in the back. Not sure why they don't make fridges like that anymore, but I'd have one custom made! I'm also thinking I might like a prep sink, it might make me more inclined to wash dishes as I go if I didn't have to do both prep and clean up in one small sink like I have now. As it is, I shove the dirty dishes to one side for "later." And I would like my kitchen to open up to a dining and family/living room. Wide open. And I have always wanted a breakfast nook, with a window! And a little desk area with a laptop and small printer and then shelves above for my cookbooks. BUT, my real dream is that dream kitchen above and then a little breezeway/foyer out the back door of the kitchen, leading to a canning/preserving kitchen. That one would have a huge freezer on the wall, a large pantry, and a root cellar. Big prep sink and cupboards for spices, jars, etc. Anyway, you get the idea. And in front of the breezway a huge decorative herb/flower garden, and on the other side of the canning kitchen--the vegetable garden, barn for the chickens and small milk cow, and orchard. That's my mega-million dream. And here in NE PA it would be mega millions. I have a colleague who is living that dream but it is on a farm that was in his wife's family for generations. Over a million to purchase something like that today. Oh, and I want a back porch to store all the weird things I never use except in the summer, and I want a playroom with a bar in it. I want it to be one of those tropical themed bars, lol! And then my own personal chef, so that I could just focus on growing and preserving the stuff, since that would be more than enough to keep me busy.

As a market gardener I look for the greatest return for the enclosed greenhouse space. Much literature will tell you that only flowers can give a better return followed by tomatoes. So I have chosen tomatoes as a primary crop to grow in my structures for many years. This year I dedicated one structure to peppers and it definitely paid great returns by having a marketable crop months early, and still ongoing. I fault those who plant a crop in a greenhouse to get early yields only and then rip it out to restart another crop when the first crop is doing well and can continue to give good returns for many months. During December thru February I remove debris, clean, repair and renovate. The winter gap without plants helps to eliminate overwintering pests by eliminating a host on which they can survive. One can buy lettuce in stores over the winter for about the same as the cost of putting up with hastles of raising it indoors in our northern winters. If I want to start tomato or pepper plants in greenhouse ground in March they are seeded indoors, starting as early as January. The cost of heating my house for my comfort is non-negotiable but the seedlings can get a "free ride" inside and a head start for the early growing season. The benefit of the greenhouse is that first flush of picking in May-June when others are just starting to think about gardening. If you can't get that then there is no real advantage to the greenhouse. Melons and other vining crops just take up too much room but can be started a few weeks early for transplanting using a benchtop greenhouse. After starting, the transplants usually do Just as well outside under row covers. I will admit that I reserve space in my high tunnels for a row of slicing cucumbers. The return is good and they predominantly take up vertical space when netting is used. My main problem is that the Food Bank doesn't even want the glut of surplus cucumbers that the peak production supplies and 6 weeks later you wish you had a few extra to harvest. This year I gave up on a followup crop because Downey Mildew was in our area already. That is when I just plant a row outside and take my chances with less onverall investment. I used to grow greenhouse basil for many years and may return to it if Basil Downey Mildew can be controlled. Most other herbs seem to do as well outside. I looked for a niche crop last year in My latest high tunnel and so I'm growing a few rows of primocane black raspberries. Still harvesting a few but they have turned into a briar jungle and I'm wondering if I could have utilised the space for a less demanding crop.

Elisabeth, why didn't it work for you? Just wondering :-) Your temps should be warmer than mine, we didn't have a harsh winter for the past year or so, hardly any frosts last year. Who knows what will happen this time round? Hopefully not the -17C of Narnia which was 2010/11......! CCC, I swear by it, bit fiddly putting it up, I use drawing pins to attach it as my g/h is wood framed. I roll all the roof pieces in a roll, tie and label, all the front panels, far end etc etc, so next year I know which pieces go where! We can buy it in one roll to do a regular 8x6 greenhouse with spare, this is the most popular size g/h over here. For aluminium g/h's you can get plastic tabs that fit in the grooves of the glazing bars, it pokes through the bubble wrap keeping it a certain distance from the glass to trap a layer of air, you push a flat snap on cover over the 'pin thing' to secure it in place. The big DIY stores sell it off the roll by the yard, or metre should I say! Just keep reusing it till it gets too tatty, or you have popped too many of the bubbles! Gill