A recent update from the person who received the yucca is that it is green and doing well. The transplanted cholla are doing well, of course, but it will be a while before I know if any sacaton survived. We have been making progress but not as quickly as we hoped. (No surprise there! ;-) ) We have the foundation blocks for the outside beds in place up to ground level and filled with dirt. Pavers have been placed, but not yet leveled, between the existing shed and the north edge of the foundation. We have the water and electrical stubbed in. We have the SHCS tubes in place for the outside beds of the east greenhouse and hope to start filling that section soon with the removed dirt. We have removed all planned use of poured concrete from our plans and have made this planned structure possible to remove easily while still unlikely to be blown away. (Mostly due to bolting the foundation via J-bolts to rebar under bond beam cement blocks.) DH will be checking to see what type of permits/inspections we will need for electrical, water, and structures. I suspect that it will be just water and electric. We won't fill in any more until we find out. It is getting hot already so we will be putting in the outside structure and shade cloth before the central shed and greenhouses. That way we can work in the shade. :-)

Hi again,,,well, We decided to buy a different greenhouse instead of messing with the hfgh,,,I decided it was not going to be big enough. We purchased a 17 x 32 gothic style greenhouse from Griffins. I have had 2 of their models in the past when I had a greenhouse business. I had the 17x48, 2 of them. I don't need one that big, so I went with the smaller one this time. I am going to sell plants on the weekends. I have thousands of seeds started right now in the basement under growlights.

I have a HFGH 10-12, and put all four vents on one side, as I was concerned about wind tearing the vents out on one side. I have two Bayliss MK7's and the other two are the original manual ones. I have had the GH running for almost a year now, and never use the two manual ones. The MK7's open and close like clockwork daily. Other additions I have made are adding an exhaust fan (over door) and motorized shutter (on opposite wall), Aluminet shade cloth (50%), various fans running nonstop and a humidifier which I have coming on when the humidity gets too low for my plants' preferences. I am in southern cal., where it can be quite dry. Without the shadecloth everything inside would fry, even with all the other mods. You might consider alternatives to a second vent, but if you still think it's necessary, one option would be to install a round marine vent, which is passive. You would just install it in one of the poly panels. They are rain proof and you could install it somewhere other than in the roof, which might improve the interior draft. Not sure what you would do about it when you are winterizing, however, but I think some of them come with an option to close manually. Another idea is to modify a large panel by cutting it horizontally, line the cut edges with aluminum channel (or even aluminum tape)installing a piano hinge to re-join the cut edges, cut a bit off the bottom to compensate for the hinge, shave a hair off either side to clear the channels in the framework, and fashion a handle like the one which came with your gh. Doing this on a side panel would be better than another roof vent, since adding another roof vent just offers a partial airflow pattern. Unfortunately this would involve removing the caulking you applied. Lastly, assuming you want to make something out of the non-caulked panel (in the roof, presumably), you could still try to use a piano or other hinge, perhaps attaching it to the crown frame. If you would be using it daily, you would need to add some framework for stability. Ann

The money saved using the solar pool cover has more than paid for itself. We usually put it on just before Thanksgiving and take it off late March or early April. I made the mistake of not ordering a clear cover and had to pay shipping on the return. I don't remember the size, but my GH is a 8 x 16 SunCountry and the cover goes up the side and over the top and back down the side again. The front is flush and I wrap the back like a package. I also purchased mine out of Wichita and ordered the gromet (sp) clips from Charley's Greenhouse.