Hi. I'm trying to do the same with my mango. Since i live in central italy, i tink that growing a mango outside is out of question as much as is growing a mangosteen there where you live. I'd like to join the post to share some ideas about what i tought in the last year tempting to solve the problem. First: the soil temp. About 1-2 meters (3-6 feet) under the soil level the temperature is beginning to approach to average annual temperature of your location. This should be easy to know. Mine, for example, is 58,28F So, if you have a annual average temperature that allows mangosteen to grow (grow, not just survive) with just occasionals cold spell, there shouldn't be problems. If you don't, i guess the taproot will stop growing when it reaches the cooler soil. I'm not sure here, but i expect the roots in cold soild to be more rot sensitive, but is just a guess. You shouldn't need to heat the soil if your annual average temperature is high enough because, after a summer, the structure should keep the soil under the mangosteen hotter than the rest of soil. Second: the structure. In my city the winter are pretty long and cold (this year we got 15F, wrost winter in ten years, but not exceptional), but i manage to keep my greenhouse above 34F without additional heat just because i choosed the right spot to build it. It is attached to two concrete walls, one facing nord, the other facing east. Since, for me, cooler winds come from there it really saves a lot of heat during nights. I keep there mainly cactuses but last winter i overwintered mangoes there without any problem. For the mango now i'm building a removable cover with same ideas in mind. I have built a north wall with concrete blocks filled with dirt (to increase their termical mass and help them retain solar heat). Then i'll build the north side of the roof with some rock wool panels. The north side will have the 45 degree inclinatin to keep it close to a sphere (the sphere minimizes surface/volume ratio, thus the dispersion) and because at this inclination, at my latitude, it starts to do a shade in the structure just after 21 march, when solar heat is not needed as before. The south wall instead will be in policarbonate, will have 30 degree of inclination (at this inclination sun will be perpendicular to the panel during the cooler days, in january). The principes are the same of a water heating solar panel. To further help with it, i plan to put some drums filled with water inside that structure. During the day they absorb solar heat releasing it during nights. Water is better than rocks because has an higher termal mass. You can find a lot of ideas just googling "solar greenhouses": the idea is basically the same, the only difficult thing is to build it removable. Third: the additional heat. The idea of heating water isn't bad, you just need an acquarius heater. Surely it won't be bothered from humidity. I'm not going with it anyway, because i'm going to imagine that i'll need heat just in few specific hours: and waters takes a bit in heating and, when is heated to the point to quickly transport heat to air, takes a lot to cool down. Plus i'd like to consume as little energy as possible. I guess there are some calculation here to take, but to make it simple i have two suggestion. First idea: incadescence light bulb in series: if you put two of them one after another you'll have less light but they will put out a lot of infrared, wich is what you need. Second idea: there are some lamps just for heating chicks. No light, just heat. Put just a thermostat to turn them on when needed, and this should hopefully keep the tree heated. Just few ideas to add to the talk. I'm a total newbie, and, in the end, i do all this just for fun. I'm sorry for any mispell, english is not my laguage.

When you've made as many as I have, making cushions or drapery panels is pretty much, "from the neck down". As with anything you do routinely you have certain mental "checklist" of what must be done and in what order. You develop "check points" to make sure you're "with the program" and you crank 'em out. You have long since "gotten over" the price of the goods you've just cut up, lol! It helps to have all the right equipment (industrial sewing machines, a gravity feed iron, hot knives, a variety of shears, a foam saw, and a BIG cutting table) as well as the wholesale contacts for supplies. And those things are part of the reason that work room rates are what they are; the other part are the taxes, insurance, and what is required to deliver a "workable" wage that rewards the years I've put in learning my trade. I find, more and more, that many of my customers are shocked by the costs UNTIL they watch me work. More often than not, they remark that while they've been talking to me and asking questions I've been busily working away on whatever wass under the needle or on the cutting table when they walked in. Idle hands bein' the devil's workshop, 'n all... ;). Seriously, time is money for my trade and flappin' my gums doesn't get the work done. No way could I deal with being a bank teller, or someone that works in a "cubicle" in front of a computer screen and/or on the 'phone all day. It's just what you're used to, I guess.

rexcoat - I'm in the northern suburbs and for fabric use Loomcraft in Vernon Hills, Vogue in Evanston and on occasion, Hancock Fabrics - can't remember if that's Deerfield or Northbrook at that point - on Waukegan Rd between Dundee and Lake Cook. For upholstery, slipcovers and drapes, I've used a number of people and places over the years, some good, some great, some not so good and some long gone. My current recommendation is Nick's Upholstery. He's a perfectionist, his wife is a designer (so you can get advice if you are stuck for ideas) and their workroom can do any kind of work you want including reworking a piece of furniture to a style you prefer. They also have tons of fabrics but I tend to go cheap on fabric and search out the discount places. However everytime I'm there, I walk around and fondle fabric books, pillows and furniture pieces they have for sale in their showroom - gorgeous stuff, loads of inspiration. Here is a link that might be useful: Nick's Upholstery

Besides the extensive menu for salads that are common to find in many restaurants (some are actually intended to be large and filling enough to be the entire meal once you add chicken or other protein choices) and the Huntington Library/Gardens (amongst other museums with gardens designed to give visitors a sort of outdoor exhibit to spend time in), I have to say that the discount fabric places that are open to the public are what I miss about living in SoCal. The store that my new sewing machine was purchased at has had to close for cleaning up after the recent flooding here. They are located on main street in Fremont NE and that's right in the heart of a very small downtown, which ended up with quite a lot of water (even businesses have basements here!) and although there's a second floor where they hold sewing and quilting classes, the majority of the stuff they sell, including fabric and expensive sewing/quilting/embroidery machines is on the ground floor and anything that isn't out on the sales floor they store in the basement. The $50 visa prepaid card that I received free with my machine purchase is at least able to be used elsewhere - I just haven't been terribly impressed by the other nearby sewing and quilting store options that I've been able to visit thus far. Walmart.com, Amazon, and various individual Etsy stores have turned out to be better options for fabric (even though there's usually a fabric yardage minimum if buying on Amazon, to get the prime membership discount - I'm already a prime member so if I can get free shipping and usually they also throw in a small discount for prime, might as well!)...at least for what my needs in terms of fabric are. I went to one of the more popular quilt stores in the area last weekend and the only thing that I needed and decided to purchase was a quilting square measuring tool with special coating on its back that keeps it from moving around as easily when placed on fabric to cut right-sized pieces for quilt block construction. It's not that there weren't plenty of lovely fabrics, just that none of them were suitable for my near-future planned projects. @sheesh My mom sat me down in front of her machine and guided me through using it to sew a straight stitch seam for one complete side of the baby blanket project I wanted to do, and then went out to the backyard to continue gardening. Once I got to the point where I had only about a hand's width left that hadn't been stitched, I went out and told her, so she could talk me through how to flip the whole thing to get the proper side of the fabric on the outside, then stitch the opening closed with top-stitching that I then continued around on all sides to blend it in for a more 'polished'-looking finished result. Everything after that, I was on my own to learn. :P That first baby blanket for the first of my friends to have a baby was the beginning of my sewing/quilting hobby. My early quilting efforts were just squares sewn in rows until I'd gotten a row that was the width I wanted, and those rows were sewn together until there were enough rows for the quilt top length I was aiming for. Layer the quilt top, batting, and back for quilt-stitching the entire 'sandwich', and then finish with packaged extra wide quilt binding around all four sides. Easy peasy. Later on I learned how to make triangle squares, to create blocks for a 'pinwheel' pattern. There are a lot of very complex quilt pattern designs, but I've found that the simple ones can be just as attractive, and it doesn't hurt that the simple patterns are easiest/fastest to construct/complete the entire quilt. Clothing is a bit more difficult, but the patterns I've successfully used and made something that I'm not embarrassed to be seen wearing in public - the pattern pieces have been strengthened with iron-on craft (heavier duty) interfacing so that they can be used many times over without ripping and tearing the delicate pattern tissue paper. After getting frustrated by the fact that just cutting the necessary pattern pieces from the others, and no amount of effort put in to carefully cut that flimsy tissue paper was helping - I did some research online and found that heavy duty iron-on interfacing would be a major help. Tried it, found it worked better than I'd expected, and decided to continue using the method for projects I wanted to do multiple times but not have to buy the same pattern and go through the entire process of cutting tissue paper pieces out all over again. :)