Gloria.........please don't ever think your questions are pestering! That's what we all come here for......suggestions/help/opinions......so please, keep asking questions! I've had a lotus in a container and a lily in a container in the same 100 gallon stocktank before. its a tight fit but possible. But in your 300 gallon, you should do fine with a lotus and lily (in containers). The lily pads might collide with the lotus floaters, but that's not really a problem. The lotus, after they get their floaters, grow upright. Just be sure to put your lotus on the side of the stocktank where it won't shade the lower growing lilies. I know several of us have talked about having a lotus bog, but lotus grow just fine in containers that are set down into a stocktank. The lily continer should go on the floor of the stocktank, whereas the lotus container should be on something like a milk crate, to bring it so that the surface of the container is about 4-6" below the water's surface. Have fun!

Last winter I followed advice in Elliot Coleman's book (Winter harvest handbook) and had great luck in *harvesting* fresh vegetables all winter. They did most of their growing however in the fall (I started them all in late September or later) and then later in the very early spring as in the winter months they barely grew (although they did a tiny bit). My set up: Hoop house - It was an existing (built by me and my husband a handful of years ago for season extention) 12x16 plastic covered hoop house. We made it out of plastic conduit and the only thing we modified for the winter is that we swapped out the flat 4 way fittings at the roof peak with adjustable angle fittings. I found that 45 or 90 degree fittings didn't work (too sharp an angle) and I didn't want to not have an angle for the snow load so I went with manually setting the angle as steep as I could with the adjustable ones. (You can find them by googling "PVC 1" Adjustable Ell Fitting 3 Way" or "4 way"). We never removed snow off the top of it - By design or by luck the snow would shed off the side. (Although I hear brooming it off is good practice.) I sealed the window and door with weatherstripping. I also added ~ 800 gals of water - some large tanks (which were a royal pain to get in) and lots of single gallon containers. against the north wall. I also added 1" foam insulation along the north wall - including covering 1/2 the "ceiling" on the north side (taped to the conduit frame in some areas). I dug the foam insulation ~ 6" deep around the perimeter. I then planted in two 18" rows separated by a small 1ft step path - all under a 4ft wide floating row cover (the row cover hovered on smaller plastic conduit hoops). Under the row cover in the small 1ft step path I put as many gallon jugs as fit leaving me with step spaces. I also put a few 1L and 2L bottles on the outside edges under the row cover. I also put one strand of old-fashioned (ie not LED) christmas lights suspended from the conduit as my "emergency" heat source. I put my thermostat for my lights outside my row cover and set it to turn on at 28*. I also grew a few earthboxes full of veggies but I found that anything in a box didn't grow nearly as well as things in the ground. I think the roots get too cold and they stop growing much, much earlier (but they didn't die - just didn't grow as much) even though they were under the same row cover but they didn't die. The last thing I did was put a small muffin fan attached to a tiny solar panel under the row cover for air circulation. I had my window/door always closed (ie I disconnected my autovents) for the winter months (Dec-Mar). I also never went in to harvest except during the day (almost always a sunny day) when opening my row covers wouldn't release any trapped heat that was vital for the night. I weighed down one side of the row cover with cylindrical bags of sand that I could easily remove and then the other side with soil/rocks piled on top. Watering was mostly a non-issue, but I'd carry in my water in jugs on sunny days and water by hand. I think I had to do this maybe 3-5 times all winter (ie monthly). With this set up I successfully grew: kale, leaf lettuce, carrots, beats, chard, mache VIT, bok choi, spinach, etc. For most plants I would harvest outter leaves and leave the inner leaves to continue growing. With that set-up each plant continued to provide until the late spring heat caused them to bolt (which was fine since I needed the space for the next round of crops). The temperature inside the row cover was much more stable than in the hoop house in general. The temp in the row cover never dropped under I think 25 - even after multiple cloudy/stormy days. In addition my hoop house is drafty so perhaps with a more sealed-tight environment no extra energy would be needed and/or maybe more ventilation. Oh and my hoop house is on the north side of my property and has mature trees ~ 50 feet away from it on the east side which did shade some in the morning (but not so bad because they didn't have leaves) and then we have evergreen trees that would shade the late day sun as well. I still think it's worthwhile but it depends on how much sun you get. I'm planning on building a "real" greenhouse (twinwall, etc) and am spending this winter scouting for the right location (best sun). I plan to use an earthen floor due to my experience of growing in pots vs in the ground, but am still doing my research for that as well. I've read that wherever possible you want to insulate in the ground to keep from losing heat that way. I plan to do that with my final greenhouse. Also wherever you are realize that both snow and a kneewall (if you have one) will shade part of your greenhouse floor in the winter due to the low sun angle so you may lose "significant" growing space that way.

Sheesharee said: I'm trying to grasp putting the ornaments in the middle section. If you don't have enough to fill wouldn't it look like the color is just in the middle? I don't think I'm explaining this right. I don't think your trees look like there's vertical color in the middle. It's all well balanced. Back to Me: I will try to explain it better, sorry, so much easier to show someone in person LOL. OK, what I ment was you would put a large amount of the plain gold balls (in this case) in the internal part of the tree. You can place them sporadically inside the tree making sure though you start at the inside (where the trunk is) with the plain gold balls. Let me make this part more clear with what I deal with. Primary decorative ornaments I want to be able to see easily: Primary tree decorations. The pretty red decorative balls. The crystal drops. The glass icicles. The silk flowers,in this case red(this is something I choose to use) Secondary: The plain inexpensive gold balls. These are ment primarily for the inside "stuffing of the tree", BUT, some are used in a much smaller amount on the outside areas of the tree (parts you can see) for bringing in the gold ball as a SMALL ACCENT. So in answer to your question you would be treating your plain balls as a filler and tiny accent, NOT as the primary decoration. You would be using the PRIMAIRY balls on the outside, icicles, crystal drops, silk flowers. So that means you would buy 100 or so of the cheap balls for the inside and small outside accents. You would then be buying the PRIMARY balls, crystals, icicles in much larger amounts (I use at least a total of 300-500 of these primary items) Now my DD doesn't like as much as an over kill tree as me (although anyone coming to her home and seeing her tree is just in awe of it) So she uses the same items as I do basicly, but cuts the amount of ornament down to about HALF of what I do, and I think her tree is very beautiful. Now, I am just explaining how I decorate a tree, it doesn't mean that it is everyone elses taste. In the evolution of your tree you will come to the realization of what is best for you. My tree that I am doing this year was an evolving process, it took me quite a few years to get where I am, that is because since I am not wealthy, I have to do it a little bit at a time every year. I am happy to say, that I don't think I have to buy any more for the cream, crystal, and gold tree. Thank goodness! LOL Oh, yes, and as a bonus I can used the glass icicles and crystals with any color theme of tree, they fit right on in, so that saves me money too. This is an example of my cream color theme on some stacking plates. Does that make more sense?

Greetings! I need some advise I lived in South Florida, and I am planning to install high impact sliding door (patio) that is on my master bedroom (HOT room). My master room is my HOT room in the house and receive DIRECT sun light all DAY (10 am to sunset) ! My main goal is to FIGHT the heat. I planning to buy a high impact sliding door with LOW-e 366 or 70XL. Measurements are: 108 by 81 I have couple of quotes but I am confused. Some companies are advising for PGT Windguard 770 series and other CGI Sentinel . Some companies are telling to NOT buy insulated glass (filled with argon) due to possibility of outside glass could break. My questions are: 1. Vinyl vs Aluminum frame. And really worth it 2. If I add tint to an low e-366 or 70XL glass would increase my SHGC factor 3. Insulation with argon gas, will leak? and How common this could happen 4. How easy the exterior glass (thin) of an insulation door fill with argon could break? Does PGT and CGI used stainless screws? 6. How I know that the door I bought has the low-e 336 or 70 glass I bought and not other lower version. Thank you in advance Thank you.