"I did not waste my money on mail order junk..." "It may be fine out in the country, and that's all well and good for those of you who can have them ... you can certainly have more greenhouse space for less money than I can ... but in some settings, frankly, it just doesn't fly." Judgmental! Lets look at post from others that own the HFGH. ________________________________________________- CONCERNING HFGH PARTS: "gardenerwantabe (My Page) on Fri, Sep 22, 06 at 8:45 Yea the price is what suckered me into buying them. Now I get to throw away these worthless P.O.S. and buy some good ones." _______________________________________________ CONCERNING MODIFICATIONS TO HFGH: "by gardenerwantabe (My Page) on Fri, Sep 22, 06 at 18:58 Molly Did you read the posts on this forum about the modifications that is required to make the 10x12 HFGH survive in a thunderstorm. If you don't do these mods you will lose it." ___________________________________________________ LET"S LOOK A LITTLE CLOSER AT JUDGEMENTAL SHALL WE: "by gardenerwantabe (My Page) on Sun, Sep 24, 06 at 17:10 I hate to bust your bubble but a hoop house covered with the plastic is nowhere near as strong or durable as polycarbonate. The wind will tear it and the sun will destroy it in two or three years. Replacing the plastic film is a never ending job and you will soon spend more than what it would have cost to buy a GH with polycarbonate panels. All you got to do to convince yourself of this is look at the warranty on both types." ________________________________________________ AND: "by gardenerwantabe (My Page) on Mon, Sep 25, 06 at 13:44 Please share with us where you bought this miracle plastic. What is the name of the manufacture. I'm sure people would like to know where they can find a plastic that will last 4 times longer than anything else on the market." __________________________________________________ A beautiful thing that requires so much modification to keep it intact, and parts that are (to borrow a quote from another post) "POS" are not only in my opinion junk, the Wall Street Journal thinks so also. You will find the link to their story in a earlier post above. Everyone should read it. Yes, some would not find a hoophouse an aesthetic contribution, but many do. They are also featured on television home improvement shows in surburan settings in back yards of 200,000.00 homes, and look quite good there. LASTLY LETS LOOK CLOSER AT AN EARLIER POST OF MINE: "Best of luck to you. Bottom line is enjoying our greenhouses, isn't that right." This forum should be named "SUPPORT YOUR HFGH" Postive, comments welcome: Negetive, comments go elsewhere. WILL DO SO GLADLY

I like Johnny's Seed - Seed Starting Calculator. http://www.johnnyseeds.com/e-PDGSeedStart.aspx??source=HomeSeedCalc0111. I will probably use this calculator this year to determine the planting dates and use Martha Stewart's Seed Starting Worksheet - www.marthastewart.com/seed-worksheet - to keep tract of what I do. I agree with you - I have got to keep better records of what/when I plant and when/what to fertilize. I finally organized an excel worksheet for ordering our vegetable seeds - I think I have that documented for easy seed ordering decisions. Here are a couple of photos of our soil sifter (we have rocky soil in places) - we built it to fit our wheel barrow so it does not move once I place it on the wheel barrow. It works pretty good for sifting soil in a small area. I go down the garden row and throw in surface rocks then dump the rocks in my 4-wheel trailer and dump the wheel barrow of dirt back in the garden. Thought it might also come in handy for sifting soil for the Soil block mixture. FYI RE: Row Cover Gardening Posted by: karin_mt 4 (My Page) on Thu, Dec 30, 10 at 12:21 I like both of those web resources for seed starting. The Johnny's one is particularly cool. I found that the hardest thing was forecasting the frost-free date inside my greenhouse so I could predict when to start plants that are destined to stay inside. And yes, a customized Excel sheet is a great way to go! I have an Excel database that starts from the very beginning of our gardens, so I have a pretty good history of what I've planted each year, where it's from and how it did. There are a few gaps though, notably which type of raspberry variety is where. I also have a little bar graph that I use to track the planting dates, exciting weather events, bloom periods and key harvests. Each year I print out the template, then fill in the bars by hand over the relevant dates. This gives a very interesting comparison of your growing climate from year to year. Maybe someday these will be key pieces of climate data? The note-taking is also helpful for reflection - it helps you firm up your thoughts. Now, your soil screener looks like a very nice tool. I like that it fits firmly on the wheel barrow. What do you do with all the rocky stuff that is left over? Maybe you'll have enough for a stone border? Do you have alkaline soil too? Do you find that your soil gets clumpy, even when it's nice soil? That's something I've noticed lately. Even though the soil is beautifully textured (not clay), it forms hard clumps. I am wondering if this is from alkalinity and the particles being inclined to stick together. RE: Row Cover Gardening Posted by: 7000feet 3 (My Page) on Fri, Dec 31, 10 at 10:40 Your method for keeping notes is helpful! The Salt River runs through our property (a mild to raging stream depending on the runoff and irrigation needs - so I return the rocks to their rightful owner - the river. We have great soil because we are on an ancient river bed but the bad part is the top soil varies from 0-36" depending on the swells. We tried to locate our garden on deep top soil but still had to haul off large rocks in the beginning and now sift the soil as we plant and haul off the small rocks. I haven't tested our PH but is alkaline soil like yours. It does get clumpy but try to keep it moist during germination and use a lot of mulch to keep the walk areas dry/walkable. We add manure every fall before plowing the garden. We purchased sifted top soil for the GH and added a lot of vermiculite, peat moss & compost - not problems with GH soil. Here is a photo of what works well for us to remove rocks from our garden. I purchased this wonderful dumping trailer that hooks on my 4-wheeler. I rake the rocks in a row and use a manure fork to throw them in the trailer - then dump the rocks on the river bed with their cousins. RE: Row Cover Gardening Posted by: soonergrandmom Z6 Grove (My Page) on Sat, Jan 1, 11 at 16:26 I have used the mini-block maker for years. I use either Jiffy Mix or ProMix with it. With ProMix you may have to throw out a small stick or two, but it holds together fine. I didn't know about the attachment for the medium block maker that makes the hole for the little one to fit into until several years after I bought mine, and I never remember to order it. So I don't use the two blocks together. Some things grow so rapidly that they need to be started in the medium size, but I start all tomato and pepper seeds in the tiny block and pot up to small containers when they get their first real leaves or when they appear to be a good strong seedling. Some things I don't need to plant 20 of, so I write the name on a popsicle stick, lay the popsicle stick between the row of blocks and slide the blocks over in groups of five to a small piece of foil. I crimp the foil up a little to hold the stick so I don't lose the name. I don't make real plant markers until I am sure I have good transplants. I make the permanent marker at the time I put them in their first small container. I am much more likely to plant 5 seeds of 4 varieties of tomato than I am to plant 20 of the same kind, so it works well for me. RE: Row Cover Gardening Posted by: ngrrsn 7 (My Page) on Tue, Sep 11, 12 at 1:33 Would like to know more about the tunnel construction; why the wire mesh instead of pvc or waterline pipe? What is the mesh sizing? Is this welded wire? What size is the wire (#10,12,14)? How easy is it to form the wire? Is it fairly strong, or does it bend easy? Why the gaps between sections of wire? How is the wire secured to the ground? What is the height of the tunnel at the center line? I am very interested in this. RE: Row Cover Gardening Posted by: Hudson...WY 3 (My Page) on Fri, Sep 28, 12 at 9:09 The mesh is 47" 12 1/2 gauge Field Fence available at most farm supply stores - a full roll is 330' but most stores have smaller rolls as well. I cut the fence in 6' lengths with small bolt cutter or wire cutter and cut the vertical wire such that there is 6" of wire on both sides of the hopes to push into the ground to anchor the fence. The center height is approx. 24". I plant in wide rows of 30". The mesh size is 6" squares (for easy reach-in, weeding etc.) although the bottom couple of rows are a bit smaller. I gap the fence in the rows approx. 18" to reduce the cost and because the row cover does not sag with the gap. I like the fence because it will last many years and I live in a climate where we have had snow every month of the year and periods of hail or strong wind. The fence does an excellent job holding up the weight of the snow and withstanding the wind/hail etc. It pulls out easy at season end and stores by stacking one inside the other. I have never tried PVC pipe so I am not in a position to compare. I am sure this fence method is more expensive but I like the way it performs. RE: Row Cover Gardening Posted by: Hudson...WY none3 (My Page) on Fri, Sep 28, 12 at 10:44 This Years Broccoli using the tunnel method - keeps out the insects too. I usually plant veggies in the garden with the row cover the 1st week of may or earlier if I can work the soil. Without the row cover, there is a threat of frost until the middle of June and after the end of August. Well worth the effort! RE: Row Cover Gardening Posted by: ngrrsn 7 (My Page) on Fri, Sep 28, 12 at 17:18 Thanks! That helped a lot! I Appreciate the follow up. 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can you explain about using water heater? or point me to where I can read about it? TIA. Rina %%%%%%%%%%%%% Water heater ? You can use a water heater like an old boiler to circulate hot water in a closed loop through baseboard. But it will be too involved: Need baseboard, piping, circulation pump, thermostats. But If I were going to make a decent greenhouse I would look into installing few solar panel water heater, with a pump and a storage tank. This way you can store solar heat during the day to heat the greenhouse at night(even during cold days) almost free. This will need some initial investment but it should have a short payoff time in your zone 5a. The only electricity used will be to run two very small circulator.

i read every word here because i am having the same problem with my son. again this is an old thread but im hoping it stirs up more attention. i tried to read calmly and not take anything personal because i truly want the situation to improve. and if i look at it honestly, well even tho my son has been kind of difficult i can totally understand feeling this way. when i had him i felt the same way. i didnt even want him to bond with strangers like at the grocery store. it must be a parental thing, you may have even felt it years ago about someone else and just forgot the feeling. hormones i think when it comes to these things should also be taken into account. i dont know about you but im headed for menopause. got all the signs anyway. also your daughters hormones can be off after pregnancy. personally, ive decided to back off and try to encourage their time together rather focusing on the time i want. thats another thing. how much is the baby being attached to you vs you being attached to the baby. i know because again when i look at it honestly i feel a very strong attachment to this child. and like someone said above i believe it could be unhealthy. i have always love babies and worked in a nursery at my church so that i could be around them more. maybe that is something to consider doing again. that way you get your baby fix and your daughter has the time to build the confidence she needs in attaining a strong bond with the baby. i am so fortunate to have stumbled across this site. it really opened my eyes. thanks to everyone for their honesty. it definitely opened my eyes to some things i needed to hear. and i bet once you back off a bit you will have the opportunity to share beautiful bonding experiences with both of them at the same time. peace love and happiness gezzi girl Here is a link that might be useful: my blog