Lisa, It's difficult to say without knowing exactly what your dimensions are, but I will tell you what I have setup. My greenhouse in South Carolina is a 12x14 hoop house with 6 mil polyethlene covering it. Temperatures here rarely reach the teens, but I would say that freezing is common. In this medium sized house, I have a single 1500W electric space heater that keeps it above freezing. The temperature is normally above about 40F. If your setup is much smaller, I imagine a similar heater would keep the enclosure warm with about the same amount of power in a much colder Ohio winter. The trick is to adjust your heater to not over heat your seedlings at night. I found that my heater (approximately $15 at Wal-mart) would actually shut-off if I turned it too high. I imagine this was because it was trying to heat too much and the safety mechanism tripped. If you keep your enclosure fairly air-tight, and above freezing at night, your seedlings will grow. Ideally, they would like the temperature to be 70-80F, but most plants will grow in less than ideal situations. Also, try to position your plants and the heater such that the heater is not blowing directly on them. Any plants directly in the path will dry out quickly. Good luck! Justin

I was away for a couple of days. #1. Absolutely! You're transferring BTUs from the collector into your pit during the day. It's essential for the operation of the system for the pit to be warmed. If you have direct sunlight, that collector will get hot very quickly. Depending upon the angle of the sun, and hours of light, you should get about 30,000 to 40,000 BTUs per day into the pit. It can hold a lot more than that, but you're limited by the hours per day, and also the relative inefficiencies. If you had a warm spell during the winter where you didn't really need to run it at night, theoretically, you might be able to charge it with maybe a couple hundred thousand BTUs. #2. You should wet the ground thoroughly once you've completed the structure. It should remain sufficiently damp after that point with the factors you mentioned. Make sure you wrap the tarp up and over the foundation such that outside rain won't be able to fill the pit -- otherwise, you'll have a swamp in there! #3. The hinged covers have three purposes: a) reflecting additional solar energy to the collector via the mylar film (make sure they're angled correctly when attaching the chains). b) avoiding snow/ice/freezing at night during the winter. Depending upon your hardiness zone, it may also be necessary to circulate some water through the collector at night to avoid cracking the cement or damage to the water lines. If severe freezing is a sure thing during the winter, then the collector should run day and night. Your "day/night" valve will just open the loop through the radiator, instead of shutting off flow to the collector too. c) to protect the solar collector during the warmer months when the system won't be running. Hope this helps. -Bruce

Depending on how you intend to use your greenhouse, I suppose, there can be a great deal of water splashed around, so we find a gravel floor (over compacted soil) to be very practical...the runoff waters an area around the greenhouse too. The interior of our greenhouse gets washed down in spring with a brush on the end of the hose, and the pots in it are watered daily with pails of rain water, mostly, or with the hose; a lot of water gets slopped around too in the semiannual filling/emptying and general maintenance of the ponds (for tropical water plants), so gravel suits our usage well. Wood is very slippery when wet, and I could imagine it might also be prone to rot prematurely in the high humidity (if not downright frequent wetness) of a greenhouse (even with thermostatically-controlled ventilation).

First test, sage and thyme. Yes, they belong in stuffing but aren't the "it" flavor. Tried them with marjoram. Good, but I think it's part of what it ought to be rather than the key. I thought I had some poultry seasoning, but it must have been used up. I use blends for a lot of things, but not that one. Spice Islands: Sage, Coriander, Marjoram, Black Pepper Extract, Celery Seed, Allspice. McCormick: THYME, SAGE, MARJORAM, ROSEMARY, BLACK PEPPER, AND NUTMEG. Penzey's: sage, white pepper, bell peppers, lemon peel, savory, rosemary, dill weed, allspice, thyme, marjoram and ginger Spice House Poultry Stuffing Seasoning: Dalmatian sage, Muntok white pepper, minced red and green bell peppers, minced lemon peel, savory, powdered rosemary, dill weed, allspice, thyme, marjoram and ginger. Spicely (stuffing seasoning): organic thyme, organic sage, organic marjoram, organic rosemary, organic onion, and organic black pepper Spice Hunter: onion, garlic, basil, rosemary, coriander, sage, thyme, paprika, black pepper, marjoram Simply Organic: Organic Sage, Organic Thyme, Organic Onion, Organic Black Pepper, Organic Marjoram, Organic Celery Seed, Organic Cayenne. Frontier: Sage, thyme, onion, marjoram, black pepper, celery seed, and cayenne (may contain silicon dioxide) Bell's: Rosemary, Oregano, Sage, Ginger, Marjoram, Thyme and Pepper I tried to find out what was in stuffing mixes but the ones I looked at don't say, just "spices". Sage, thyme and marjoram do seem to be the standard for poultry seasoning. And pepper.