Mixing 5-1-1 is just in relative proportions. You can use anything of any size; bucket, pot, bin. just measure 5 time bark, one time perlite, one time peat moss. If you are making a big batch just multiply the numbers. I dump all my measured stuff on a tarp and mix them all together and store it in a barrel But if your question is how much you will need to fill two 30 gallon container (60 gallons) , just take roughly 6 gallons per cubic foot. So roughly you will need 10 cubic feet of bark, 2 cf of perlite and 2 cf of peat moss: You will end up with some extra for other potting needs. If you want the total to be just about 10 cf, then take 7 cf (40 gal) of bark, 1.4 cf(8gal.) of perlite and 1.4 cf (8gal) of peat moss. Thing to remember is that 5-1-1 is just a ball park proportion. I may add more or less peat moss depending on how fine or coarse the bark material is. With coarse bark you may also use less perlite because it will have less water retention capacity. In other words : Too coarse bark, too much perlite will end up with a mix with very low water retention. Not exactly a perfect science in a chemistry lab.

Arthurm, you are right. Micro-clime is very important. When I grew my plants in a northern exposure, with very little overhang, it was as you describe- double canvas over them in the summer and one layer or none in the winter. (Don't know the percentages, It was just coarse canvas). When we moved into this house, with a deep patio and a southern exposure I learned a lesson much like Jane's. In the winter the sun was lower in the sky and therefore reached deeper under the overhand for a longer duration. Burned a lot of plants before I realized my mistake. For now, I have the plants fairly close to the same place they were growing before. Just a little closer to the eastern side of the patio to catch that morning sun. So far (its been two days) I see no burning and the leaves have not felt hot to the touch. I have a mix of the usual villains. Catts, Dends, Phals, and some Oncids. Been getting some Tolumnias lately too. I have been growing the Dends on the east side of the growing area and by late morning they did feel warm but, they never seemed to burn. I guess they were acclimated. I am hoping that since most of the plants are already acclimated to the area before the screen went up, they should be ok and might even take a little more. I think they would like a little more light than they were getting under the overhang. They have not really thrived since we moved to this house. I guess the Dends will be my primary guinnie pigs for light experiments. My fingers are crossed!

I erect a simple hoop house in my garden for the winter. I made mine out of an old 10 by 20 foot canopy frame (metal) with extra cross pieces and braces made of pvc pipe. It is all very homemade and crude but it works like a charm. I don't go for all the fancy stuff because I am only storing large potted plants in it instead of trying to grow a crop. I don't even have doors on it, I just bundle up the extra plastic sheeting on the two ends and clamp it all shut with large plastic clamps at night and open them up during the day (unless it stays cold). I live outside Raleigh. Occassionaly I have a mild frost inside the hoophouse but most of what I am growing is dormant by late winter anyway so I have rarely lost a plant. I heat with a small electric space heater on most nights and if its going to get into the low 20's I drag in a kerosene heater and let it run all night (it usually makes it too hot!). If the temps are supposed to dip into the single digits I cover the whole thing with an extra large fabric tarp and run both heaters (I've only had to do this once in the 8 years I've lived here). Many plants are sensitive to the ethylene gas given off by the kerosene heater but I haven't had a problem - and I collect impatiens which are very sensitive to it. I imagine if you wanted to grow a food crop you would need to build it sturdier and have it heated better and probably install some lights. Most of the tomatoes or peppers I have tried didn't get growing strong enough to produce a crop in mine. I mostly store large citrus, tree ferns and other potted tropicals that can actually take a light frost. Most people that see it are impressed with the easy construction of my hoophouse - I use no power tools to set it up, everything is held together with duct tape and clamps. But my yard is sheltered from strong winds and I haven't had much snow so it hasn't gone through much winter weather. It all depends on what you want to grow.

Don't worry about material waste. The costs of going to 9' or 10' ceilings will not be in the frame labor, but in material. Usually when engineers look at taller ceiling heights, they require smaller stud spacing, and/or fireblocking between studs. The studs are not cut to 8', 9', or 10' heights, but smaller to account for the bottom plate and double top plate to acheive 8', 9', or 10' heights. Remember if you change an 8' plan to 9' or 10' there are many things to consider, especially if you want it to look scaled to the model you looked at to reference your purchase including windows and doors, headers and products. Imagine this, if your 8' plans call for 7' header heights for your front windows, that means their is 12" from the ceiling to the top of the window. Now if you raise the ceiling you now have 24" or 36" from ceiling to window, which will look funny. So you will have to raise your header height or purchase taller windows to maintain the scale. Your exterior material will also go up, brick, stucco,siding. Just things to consider, but I feel it is definitely worth it, especially for resell value.