Our bouncer is a wet/dry one with a bounce area and a slide. The only part that burns the grass is the part that holds water (that does not blow up) so literally a lining of plastic. It does not burn the grass under the bounce or slide areas. We have the pirate blaster from blast zone Canada. We also have direct sun all day long. I was wondering if I tarped underneath that part if it would help stop the burning of the grass or if filling it with water would stop this? I don't think it can really be avoided. Just to note: The grass does come back it basically only seems to burn the tips. I can send pictures if necessary.

There are many "ifs" in this situation. How large was the above ground pool and was it in the place for a long time and was it lifted in the fall, put back in the summer. What was the ground like before the pool was constructed...grass, bare ground, was it used heavily for foot traffic. The ground, if it was used as a lawn, chances are it had a reasonable amount of goodness to the soil...and grass can grow again without too much trouble. If it was bare ground, chances are it was neglected, the rain ran away from it, absorption did not happen very much and otherwise the area was more waste than grass. In this case, you will have to dig it up, add some organic matter, improve it to want to grow grass. If it was in an area where foot traffic was heavy, chances are the area of ground is heavily compacted. Again, it needs to be either aerated (by a machine) or dug up, improved and grass tried to grow. There are two methods of growing a lawn....put down sod, or seed. With seed, you should find out what type grass you have now in the outlining areas. How is that area growing. An overseeding might be thought of. Sod, while more expensive, is the fast way and it can be done NOW...you'll have a lawn that you can walk on in about two weeks. With seed, its too late....the soil temperature says seed wont germinate and you'll have to wait until spring. It can come down to how large is the area to be sodded. Sod pieces generally can be had for about $3.00 or less for ?? It depends on how large sod pieces come in your particular area....call up a sod provider and ask how much he charges and then plan on using the family car to go get it. A car's trunk can reasonably carry about 15 - 22, 25 sod pieces. Let's assume a sod piece is 2 ft by 6 feet...12 square feet. Just measure the area that needs repairing and figure how many sod pieces would be necessary....add a couple for insurance. The area should be given some new soil in any case...if you add some organic matter, dig up at least 6" - 8" down...and churn it in with a rented rototiller...use one that you can handle...don't need a big machine...as long as it can dig the tines in to start, the rest will follow. If you use peat moss to amend your soil, be sure to wet it first with hot water...peat moss will absorb warm water but will reject cold water; so the mixing in with the soil will be much easier if you sprinkle with hot water the peat before adding. If you use hay or straw as an amendment, be sure its OLD --new straw (hay) has seeds in it and it will give you a barnyard instead of a lawn if you use it fresh. To measure how much soil you might need to improve the ground there....measure the area...if it was a round pool, simple measure across the diameter, divide by 2...gives you the radius and then use the old standby...pi R squared. pi meaning 3.1428...X R..radius X itself. example: if the pool was 24' across...half is 12'...X 12 X pi....3.14 X 12 X 12...= approx 450 sq feet. If you were to put down 4" of topsoil or compost you would then multiply the square footage X 4 (inches) = 1800...which you multiply by 3...= 5400 and dvide by 1000...move the decimal 3 places to the left..giving you exactly 5.4 cubic yards of soil to purchase. If the pool area was less or you wish to use less soil just replace the figures but do the math the same way. If the pool was in rectangular form, just use the same method...length X width in feet, giving you square footage...times the depth of soil (in inches)...multiply by 3 and divide by 1000.... If the area is in pretty good shape, then maybe it doesn't need cultivating but can be reliably raked hard to raise furrows before putting down sod. In any case, look to the drainage so that when you grow grass it will not become a sotted mess....make sure the water rans away from the house and can easily be absorbed into the ground. The sod provider can give you instructions on what you must do to bring the sod along and don't get antsy and want to mow it too soon...its late now. sod can still be put down but let any mowing wait until spring....you mower should be just about ready to be put to bed for the winter anyway. But again SOD can still be put down even at this date.

"Second, with all the hoop-style greenhouses I've noticed there needs to be a bending of PVC. Is that really a good idea? Will it snap?" PVC is very bendy when warm, just don't try bending the bows during a blizzard ! It's wise to put in a ridgebeam of 2x4's glued in a "T" shape to give the bows support. I attached my bows with "U" shaped conduit brackets. "Use Schedule 80 PVC - it is heavier, grey (therefore more sun resistant). It can be purchased at most large discount stores, Lowes, Home Depot, etc." Unfortunately Sch. 80 is a special order around here. I did the rebar-inside-PVC trick. I'd sure have ordered the Sch. 80 if I'd known I could. "So is there anywhere where I get about that much plastic sheeting for a lesser price? " I've canvassed the home centers and never found any good film wide enough. I don't know where that stuff came from the author of the plan used. I found that I could use our industrial sewing machine to sew 10ft pieces of 6 mil plastic together. However, you can buy cut yardage of decent four year greenhouse film. I went to our local greenhouse and asked where they buy their plastic. They'd just taken down their three year old plastic and put up new, so I said, "Can I buy the old film, please?" They said "sure... oops. Cut it up for scrap." So if you could find this kind of deal you'd have good plastic for a year or so. Ask for testimonials from people who've bought recently. I used the cheap stuff and it has lasted a year with one or two small rips so far. Or you can buy a "solar pool cover". It's a very good, thick type of film designed to be a good insulator. A solar pool cover is peppered with trapped air bubbles and I wish I had one. Ask CactusFreak, I think he uses one. People who do love it. It costs more but if you want to have anything growing when snow flies, it'll pay for itself in the first year. One important tip is to build the greenhouse with two foot high wooden sides. These "kneeboards" give you much more headroom, and they reduce the length of the bows you'll need and, more important, they mean you can use a smaller piece of plastic to cover. I sure wish I'd known that tip last year. ""And will it be hard to heat a hoophouse if it has big holes in the plastic (like near the ground), or is there a way I can make it near air-tight?" You can set up the plastic to be rolled up toward the top of the HoopHouse when you don't need heating and roll it back down in the Fall. That gives you lots better ventilation and prevents overheating. I'd like to figure out how to retrofit my hoophouse to do that. ********* If you happen to have a hill on your property, there's a great money saver called a "Pit" greenhouse. You still use the bows and cover with plastic, but you cut into the hill on the South side. The earth forms the North wall, and insulates your greenhouse from the cold winds. Properly constructed, a Pit greenhouse will never get below freezing in Zone 5. A clever trick is to dig down enough to put in a walkway in front of the plants. The cold air that creeps in sinks and fills the sunken walkway where the earth warms it to above freezing. We have two hills that might work, but I'd end up killing trees to do it. :(

I know one guy that used that in his aquaponics system and in the winter the water not only froze one top but also on the sides. So if you live in a place that has ice and snow then make sure you have a pond heater. That's the only downside I could think of (because there's a chance that the ice will expand and split the pool), although i have never tried it. I have done some research and I know there's a lot of people that use those as ponds. I say for $60 it's worth the trial!