It must be the dry heat here but irises and day lilies don't have the explosive growth some of you describe and therefore they make perfect companion plants for me. The iris flowers are a wonderful bonus (I have reblooming ones) at unexpected times of the year but it's really their growth habit, and that of the day lilies, that makes them a valuable accent plant in the garden. My day lilies only bloom in spring and early summer, which is just as well, since I have the common yellow and gold ones. Cutting out the spent bloom spikes on the day lilies seems like the most onerous chore, right along with cleaning out the dead fronds at the bottoms of the plants. For me the best companion plants have turned out to be pelargoniuns, which bloom for most of the year in white and fuchsia, and make a great companion for the roses I grow. Very little maintenance and lots of blooms. And, last but not least, the animals and snails leave them alone. Ingrid

In the summer, because it gets so hot, I leave my gh wide open, rain or shine, 24/7 with a shadecloth over half of it. I wait until fall to clean the panes, as dirty (i use 409 on my polycarbonate panels and it works beautifully. I rinse after cleaning with water), they act like a diffused shade cloth. On the hottest days, like we had here a few weeks ago when the actual temp was in 100's, I put a boxfan in the door blowing in. I found if you blow out, the gh actually gets hotter. The plants in the greenhouse do not seem to suffer with really high temperatures if there is air circulaton. I start seeds in there and plants I want new seeds from that are really susceptible to insects. The anole and skink patrol keep it pretty much bug free. I also grow tomatoes that I want to be perfect with no yellow splotches & such. I have learned that no matter what you do, you are going to probably get algae on the top of the soil. Most of the time I just leave it, or take a bamboo skewer and scrape it off. I haven't noticed anything different about plant growth/health with or without the algae. Be aware that if you leave it, it can fool you into thinking the plant has enough water. This winter I am going to install some lights inside and try to get a real jump on the season. This is my 2nd summer with my greenhouse and I must tell you it has impacted my life so positively that people have actually commented on it. I used to dread the coming fall and winter because I suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder terribly, but last winter I was able to walk out of the cold and wind and into my hot and humid private jungle and sunbathe with the anoles. It really made a difference. X

Interesting questions Claire. I've been pondering the same questions myself. I think one cannot create an artificial family of trees unless you were to plant trees that were all seedlings of a single parent tree, because unrelated trees of the same species do not recognize one another as kin. I read somewhere that maples create an unfriendly environment for certain types of other trees and plants, and certainly Norway maples are known to be hostile and invasive to other species. So some trees seemingly make life difficult for other species. I had that somewhat in mind when planting maples on the north side of the property. I planted birch in the same area, as one very often sees birch and maple growing together in apparent harmony. But I've planted no other species there. On the south side I planted one area in evergreens (pine and spruce) and a lower area in apples and crabapples. The latter area has the most likelihood of becoming a true family group soonest because of the apples dropped from an existing mature wild apple tree. The 4 nursery-bought crabapples are thriving there, so probably if conditions are right for one type of apple, every apple planted there will thrive. That spot gets more moisture than other areas that are better drained, and I've found that apple trees will thrive in very wet areas that would drown other tree species. Then again, in the "wild" woods up on my hillside, all manner of tree species have sprung up and are seemingly coexisting, although who knows what underground root battles, or at least competitions, are taking place. There seem to be enough nutrients for everyone up there, and also all of these young trees are the progeny of parent trees growing further up the hill in the old forest to the other side of our property. Because I leave the 3 newly (artificially) reforested areas unmowed, the trees within will eventually start to produce their own offspring, but that is a long time in the future, probably long after we are gone. I try not to think about what atrocities a new owner may someday visit upon our trees and land. The question of a lonely single tree also has occurred to me. My most beloved tree is this lovely flowering crabapple in my front yard in the photo. It's a 'profusion' variety, a semi-weeping tree with gorgeous blossoms in the spring. It's really come into its own from the tiny twig I planed over a decade ago. And yet the poor thing keeps trying to procreate, sending up tiny shoots that are necessarily cut down with each mowing of the lawn around it. Interesting discussion that has made us see our trees in a new light.

Worth the watch! Very cool about the carbon isotopes being transferred --via fungi-- amongst parent and daughter plants.