Two things: 1) start tomatoes, eggplants, etc. indoors, in a wet coffee filter inside a ziploc inside an ice chest with a fluorescent light inside. With some adjustment, you ought to get the ice chest to 80-90F. The seeds will germinate. Transfer them to small cells on a sunny window sill. Have them grow through their tiny phase while the GH warms up. The ice chest and the window sill buy you one month. 2) go on Craigslist and find large plastic sheeting and some bubble wrap. stick the bubble wrap to the sides and top of the GH, then cover with the plastic. It will be a pain to get in and out but this will buy you maybe 10H/5L F. Make sure the sheet does not touch the GH directly. Secure the sheeting with 2X6 with cinder blocks on top. 3) Go on Craigslist and see if you can find 30-50 5 gallons buckets, or several 55 gallons drums. With lids, if possible. Put them in the GH and fill them with water, making sure they do not touch the wall (I use pieces of wood, and the leftover bubble wrap). Another 5H/15L F from this. Of course, a good seal of both the GH and the plastic is essential (that is why I recommend 2X6 wood, instead of just bricks or blocks). It helps also to have black plastic on the floor, if you can stand the slippery conditions. Punch some tiny holes in the plastic to allow water to drain. I always have a bucket of composting stuff in there to provide CO2. With this set up, you can have tomatoes out there when the highs are 40-45 and the low 25-30. If it is 40-25, with some sun, I get 55-50 inside. With full sun add another 5. No sun, 45/30 would be best. Right now the highs are 30-32, cloudy, so the tomatoes and peppers are inside the house, but everything else is in the GH, including 20 peach seedlings. I put the trays right on top of the buckets or drum, for extra warmth. The eggplants are still in the coffee filter, I started them later, they germinate slow too.

I have a 6x8 greenhouse and I heat it at night. My heater is set to come on at 7 degrees above zero. I came to this figure by setting my 2 mini-max thermometers in different spots in the greenhouse over a week and finding the coldest spot in the greenhouse at night. It costs me a total of about $50 to heat it for 2 months and I grow about 1000 plants--both flowers and vegetables. I'm in zone 3 so my planting time is from May 24th on but tender things like peppers and tomatoes don't go in until after the first week of June. When ordering seeds I make sure they are early maturers. I have some lights for starting things that need an early start and I start my greenhouse up in the middle of April. That's time enough for anything that needs a 6 to 8 week early start. Since I don't need the wholegreenhouse when I'm starting seeds. I fixed it so the door end--where the electiric cord is-- I have a small bench that is 2 1/2 feet by 4 feet. Big enough to hold 4 trays. The heater sits on the floor below and I have a sort of folding box built to cover from the floor and over the trays. The lid is hinged so I can open it in the day for ventilation. This way only the part I'm heating is the box and I can keep it at the temperature needed for them to germinate. They stay there until the plants need transplanting. Being inside the greenhouse It has double heat protection so the heater doesn't run as often. I also have black pails filled with water that sit in the sunniest part of the rest of the greenhouse. They have lids which I put on at night. This gives off heat too. It is a shame to have a green house and not use it and there are ways around every problem if you put on your thinking cap and think outside the box Anyway that's the way I do it

You guys (both male and female) must be really young with really strong backs! When we moved here from Miami - I was determined to have some tropicals. And I can remember running out in the late afternoon when it was 45 trying to cover things when we were supposed to have a hard freeze. Lots of fun (rolling eyes). After about 5 years - I stopped trying to fight mother nature. I still do buy tropicals - but only small fairly inexpensive ones for a butterfly/hummingbird garden that I'm prepared to lose every year (and pull out and throw away). Plant only after 3/15 (recommended date here - almost no chance of hard freeze here after then in zone 9A) - and when the plants die - they die - they die (sometime our first hard freeze is in February - sometimes - this this year - it's in December). IMO - if you're new to the area - especially if you're in zones 9A or 9B - I'd see what normal weather patterns are like where you live. Not only what the low temps are during the winter - but how long they last (some plants are ok with an hour of light freeze - many others need 3-4+ hours to get hurt). And how often you get them. And you have to remember not to prune many of those cold damaged plants until your last probable freeze date (like I have some hibiscus that have been damaged - they look like garbage - but I won't know until spring pruning whether I have to prune off a foot of deadwood - or take them down to the ground (if the latter - I'll dig them up and toss them - don't want to wait until August for flowers). BTW - in the years we lived in Miami - and our folks lived in Lighthouse Point (east Broward) - we never saw a freeze (hurricanes yes - freezes no). But there are a lot of plants there that don't even like weather in the 40's. Still - I only remember a couple of days down there when the lows were in the 40's. Robyn

bpathome, I'm using them on an Iphone, Ipad mini - and on my laptop (non-apple product) - so maybe they look different on your android? And LOL I'm not sure why I have both apps on - I tend to use Accuweather the most. DH and I walk daily preferably outside after work - so if it looks cloudy and I'm not sure if we need to drive to a mall to walk inside - I'll check both apps. I also run some volunteer activities where I need to know the weather a day or two before so I can choose the right location - again if the weather is iffy, I'll check both.