boxcar, The foam is waterproof, so if you lay it under crushed stone with no place to drain; it won't. However, if you have the patience to fiddle with the crushed stone, grading and packing it firmly to the center or one end and can dig out a drywell, you could lay the foam over it, leaving the top of the drywell open from the foam, then more stone on top, and the water would drain to the drywell. But it would result in a much nicer and easier to keep clean floor, not to mention tracking the stuff, to just overlay the foam with concrete patio blocks or bricks. As long as the crushed stone is well and truly packed, the foam really will support the bricks or blocks, that will lay easily and could be butted tightly to avoid the need to fill between them. You could even broom mortar into any cracks, wet it and when it dried, would have a really solid floor. BTW, just in case you aren't familiar with drywells- They are just holes dug down to below frost line, lined in the old days with mortared brick or stones and now, plastic liners that can be bought for the purpose. Or, you can use a length of fairly wide plastic culvert pipe. You could also use the same heavy plastic channel drain as I did, except that instead of the section with the drain drop leading to a sump pit, it would go directly into a drywell. There are a number of options, but for any drywell, always- the deeper the better, then fill it with large stones to the top of the liner and either set a made for the purpose cap or channel drain drop section over it, or top it off with with 1/2 inch hardward cloth and lay a piece of window screening over that, to prevent anything other than water from seeping into it. I drain my GH with a channel drain that connects to a sump pit, fitted with a sump pump, that empties the pit to a 150 ft. long line, but I fitted out my GH out to serve as a tropical fish hatchery, so often need to dump hundreds of gallons of water at a time, and have a large utility sink out there too, with H & C water, so it's a different GH use and set-up than most. I also laid OSB over the foam, then topped that with 3/4 inch concrete board, but that was because I wanted a glazed quarry tile floor and it requires far more elaborate under pinnings than do patio blocks or bricks. The tile also lines the kneewall, but there too, my needs were different. All you really need for a GH in which you only grow plants, is a means to drain off excess water from the plants and avoid too much dampness that might cause fungus on them as well as the interior walls of the GH, although the ability to hose down a concrete block or brick floor with cold water is a nice extra, for keeping the GH clean and help cool it on hot days. It really all depends on HOW you want to use your GH, and WHEN in relation to your climate, and how much time, effort and money you are willing/able to spend to fit it out for your own maximum use and enjoyment. After all, a garden GH is really only for pleasure, because unless you are feeding an army of kids, for what it costs to build and maintain one, it's cheaper to shop for veggies at Whole Foods and buy started plants at any nursery. So by all means, put a lot of thought and effort into your foundation and if, after you have the GH you need to back off on the fittings until your wallet recoups; do so and in the end, you will have what you really want. We spent an entire season preparing the foundation for my GH and by the time we actually got to erecting it, all we had time for before winter set in was to install the heater, but as anxious as I was to use it, patience paid off. (Of course, we are also a pair of arthritic old poops, so everything takes us longer now.)

Diggingthe dirt - thanks for your response. I got the great idea to collect the acorns and put them in the fire before I asked the forum. While raking, they ended up at the bottom of the pile because of their weight and I collected them in buckets and then proceeded to sort out all the leaves and grass so I now have two buckets of cleaned off acorns. The morale of MY story (stealing a little from diggerdee) is to ask the forum first! I have two problems with leaving them where they lie. First, I tend to stumble, trip, losing my balance while walking on the lawn. I also can't kneel when trying to do something in the garden beds (knee pads don't even work) so I have to clear them out anyway. Second, they tend to grow! I have several new oak trees starting from years past of leaving the acorns on the ground. None are full grown trees yet but I find them difficult to uproot once I even notice one growing. There is one near the driveway I think I may have to get removed. It's just nature being nature but I don't want a yard full of oak trees - LOL! In my convoluted mind, putting them in fire was sort of using them "naturally". Oh well, with what I have, I'll use them as some kind of a decoration. The next batch from raking I'll put around the oak trees. I like the idea of using them as they were intended. Diggerdee - I loved that story! Does your son remember doing this? What a great tale to tell his children someday. Thank you both again - now off to do more raking....

The year I drove thru there in my move to Mass., was early October. The grass was still green and beautiful. I don't think the highways are too bad, but I've been to Colorado, where they are much worse. I don't think however, that I've seen as many semi-trucks as I did on the highway there! ROTFL - I know what you mean by their opinion of "hot"! If it hits 80 degrees, it is insufferable heat to them! Most houses in the northern states don't even come with air conditioning. People just put in a window a/c if needed. Boston roads were literally built on cattle trails. The roads go each and every way, and you never know if you're going east, west, north, or south, or points in between! People would tell me to go north on Route (yes, it's always a "route") 20 north, when you actually were going east! I was so confused. Lots of roundabouts there, too. I used to spend a lot of time just going around and around and around trying to figure out which road I was supposed to take. Colorado is the same with bears, though. We went camping there one time, and a bear raided a trash can located by our camp site. Scared us to death. My husband got up in the tent and grabbed a wooden stake from one of our cots and was prepared to fight off the bear with it! Oh, yeah, like a bear is going to be intimidated by a piece of wood! Yes, the sky is not really open there. But, driving on highways, whenever the sun would shine thru, everybody virtually stopped their cars because they could not see the road with the sun shining thru the trees! LOL! They just weren't used to seeing the sun there. In summer, it didn't get dark until 10 p.m. I winter it got dark at 4 p.m. They are, however, much better at cleaning the snow covered roads there than we are here. Never had to worry about anything preventing me from getting to work. They also used the breakdown lanes to travel on! Scared me to death when I thought I was in the far right lane, to see someone speeding 70 mph on MY right! The laws allowed it during certain times of day because of the congestion. No ice tea in winter, and no ice tea without sugar added. You had to specifically order your tea WITHOUT sugar. In winter, you had to order hot tea and a glass of ice cubes if you wanted ice tea. Coffee was also served with sugar (when you ask for "regular" coffee, it comes with sugar) so you also had to request no sugar. No Mexican food or Bar-b-Que. But, lots of seafood and ethnic food. Which I loved! I remember one restaurant we used to frequent. We went there when it was close to Christmas, and people would just break out a Christmas song that all the patrons would sing along. It was fun! Yes, they have very different culture up there. I felt like I was in a foreign country! But, it is beautiful, the history is wonderful (we visited lots of historical sights), and the people were much nicer than we had been given to believe. Public transportation is WONDERFUL. I hope they do build that rail system in OKC that they are talking about due to gas prices. I believe there used to be a trolley system on Classen Blvd (I live just off of Classen), and the tracks were covered eventually with the median that now exists. Very different customs up there, but I loved my stay there (a year and a half). I got to see things I never would have otherwise and I don't regret it one bit. But, boy was I glad to get back to the south! Susan

I live on 5 acres, backup to a wildlife pond and have neighbors with even more acreage. I have not experienced any trespassing in the 15 years I've lived here. The little bit of garbage that I do pick up, I assume blew out of trash or recycle bins on windy days. I posted one or two posts above about my mom and her inner-city neighborhood. The few people that I know that live in the inner city have some serious trespassing issues. They have had statues stolen out of their gardens, a threat tacked to an outside deck and one of them even had her purse stolen right off her kitchen table (which you can see from the sidewalk!) On the other hand, my lake property isn't nearly as big as my home property. It is about a half acre and sits next to a public boat launch. The problem there is many fishermen bring their dogs. There is a porta potty at the access. When the fishermen stop by to use the facility, sometimes the dog will use my property to go #2. Of course the dog owner will just wait for the dog to finish his busiess, and off into the boat they go when he's done. I've never once seen one clean up after their dog. I don't have a dog so it's discouraging to go up to the cabin and have the yard littered with dog do-do. I have, on occaision, waited for the offending fisherman to leave and then scoop the do-do and put it in their vehicle. But only when I know for certain which vehicle it is and it has to be unlocked.