I've battled probably the same heron for about 3 years. He comes in during winter through early spring. Always in the AM. I tried the fishing line, watched him circle and circle, army crawl through it and finally he flew up and crashed down in the middle of the pond in the deep water, like a duck. a big duck. They are persistent nasty things. I named mine Smaug, after the Hobbit dragon. This winter I went with a green house plastic over the main pond area, to keep him out and to keep the sub tropical fish alive. it worked. The day after I removed the plastic this spring, he showed up. The effective deterrents for me have been: 1. Me. Any movement in the house, the drapes open, I get up off the sofa, he sees me through the window and he's gone. Every time. The pond is about 50 feet back from the house. If i want to watch him, i HAVE to sit perfectly still inside the house; they have amazing eyesight. 2. Truck netting. I buy truck bungee netting on Amazon and stretch them out over the main pond. It works pretty well and is a compromise from full fish netting, this way I can let the birds and the frogs in and out, the big birds have a harder time. This year I got the alligator head. It looks really good, moving with the current, like the real thing. Not sure it'll work for long but anything helps. I also put out a cheap radio on batteries, talk radio. I am also this year going to capitalize on movement. Since he always leaves when he sees anyone moving in the house, I bought a wemo device. I can power on or off, either from my smart phone or on a schedule, any electronic device. I hooked up a circulating fan to it, aiming it at my drapes. From the outside, it appears to be someone moving the drapes. Someone suggested going with one of those tube dancing things, the kind you see for advertising. I think it would work for a while. What I really want is a halloween witch i see on Amazon, its a motion or powered activated full standing prop. Its crouched down, and when activated stands to full height, makes noise, etc. that is something I could use on the back porch or in various places in the house where it would be seen. I also have a Foscam camera, with audio. I've yet to catch the heron on the motion sensor, but having the ability to tie in anytime, anywhere is very powerful. I would not go without having an IP based camera to monitor, even if its just a passive device, knowledge is everything.

Hi Sue, I have not had any plants that have suffered with me insulating the g/h with bubble wrap and we have used it for years in our g/h's with no problems. It can be a problem in spring though as when I start bedding plants from seed I have to time the sowing to coincide with taking the wrap off the roof, and then just after, off the sides too else I get real leggy growth. (so I guess that proves it does cut it down somewhat!) However, during the colder months most of the plants that I store are either semi-dormant/dormant, and others are in leaf but just 'ticking over', not ACTUALLY growing, and the marginally lower light levels haven't posed a problem...so I have not used artificial lights either. It's sold in rolls over here especially for that purpose and can be stored and re-used again and again...provided you can resist the temptation to burst all the little bubbles, a very satisfying passtime is that, especially if you get the wrap with 1 inch bubbles, they go with quite a POP!! hehe! Gill <:>

This is my first year growing tomatoes, so it's been quite an experience given our unusually cold and wet spring here in Seattle. I planted several plants from seed at the end of March and transplanted them just after Memorial Day. I had to keep them under hoops and plastic for the last month since we've barely reached 70ðF all spring. We're finally getting sunny, warm weather this week. Now my tomato plants have dozens of flowers, and they're finally setting fruit. Cherokee Purple heirloom plant Sungold with 3 tiny fruits and about a dozen flowers Flowers on a Black Krim heirloom plant, including a megabloom in the middle Closeup of the megabloom on a Black Krim heirloom plant

Panko9- What a cute Eski!!! Minor correction for our Miss Callie, she's a Samoyed ("Sammy"). They're in the "Working Group" of AKC. Some pics of Callie & I goofing around last July, when I was changing-out the flag! Faron