Well I am glad to know I'm not alone, except I may qualify for 'going overboard'. Here is my one of my greenhouses (8 x16). I packed it to the roof last week because we had a couple of nights in the high 30s. I don't think I can get one more in there. I can barely get in there. But the second picture is the new one we are building (18x42). We should get the polycarbonate on this week and then get it wired up. Then I can transfer some of the others over, but the bad thing is I have about that many that still need to come in. I have never counted my plants, but I am sure it is well over the 500 mark. I know I have about 150 orchids, 40 or so begonias, about 30 Hoyas, 20 or so EEs and many others. And YES, I drag them all in and out every spring and summer. Crazy I know, but they give me such joy!!

from the door

It flipped...I had it position the right way



This is the new one.

I don't know why, when one uploads pictures that are properly aligned, ATP rotates them. It happens to my pictures all the time. The only way to know is to look at the "preview" and see if the picture is right. For example if ATP rotated the picture to the right, and the picture is now on its side, I delete the picture, go back into my Kodak Easy Share, rotate that picture to the left, and then when I re-upload it, it will be properly aligned. Perhaps there is a better or easier way to do this, but that's what I do.

Perhaps one of the computer experts on ATP can tell us why our pictures get rotated.

Where are you located, BNB?

I have a hard time seein how a properly installed heater in the GH is more dangerous than indoors...
As ken suggested, use a gfci and there shouldn't be any issue, even if you spray it directly with the hose...

drdawg said:I don't know why, when one uploads pictures that are properly aligned, ATP rotates them. It happens to my pictures all the time. The only way to know is to look at the "preview" and see if the picture is right. For example if ATP rotated the picture to the right, and the picture is now on its side, I delete the picture, go back into my Kodak Easy Share, rotate that picture to the left, and then when I re-upload it, it will be properly aligned. Perhaps there is a better or easier way to do this, but that's what I do.

Perhaps one of the computer experts on ATP can tell us why our pictures get rotated.

Doug, these questions are always best asked on the Site Talk Forum. @Dave deals with a wide variety of devices and programs that have different functionality, so please post it so he can get it addressed.

Thanks Ken...I'll try that.

BnB, your gh looks like mine does every November when I stuff everything in at the last minute. It's perfect!

Cheryl, I have five of these little heaters. I have two on the patio, and three in the hoop by the fence. I only fire them up when the temp is in the very low 40s, or 30s. They seem safe, plug into GFIs, and have never fallen over yet (blasted raccoons may try). I occassionally hit them with the hose, unintentionally, with no problems.



Just take the best of all our suggestions and do what you think will work best for you. The first year that I had hoops, I hardly slept when we had a freeze. Each year it gets easier because, unfortunately, it gets warmer each winter.

Buds, you don't need to worry that anybody here will think you're crazy. We all have hundreds of plants, too. That looks like a wonderful greenhouse taking shape there.

On the subject of keeping hoop houses and greenhouses warm, I had a friend in Salt Lake City who used to warm his greenhouse using those big plastic storage tubs full of water. In the daytime the sun would warm the greenhouse up, and the water would warm up too. At night the water in the tubs stayed warm, and also helped humidify the greenhouse. If it got really cold for a long time, or if the days were cloudy, he used to use waterbed heaters (which come with thermostats!) in the tubs to warm up the water. Warm, humid and most of all, very safe! When the sun does the heating it's free, too!!

I leave plastic jugs of water in the sun to warm up if we have a cold night predicted. Then I distribute them around the garden to keep my plants warm in place. We don't have that many nights that are cold enough to cover, but I have a LOT of frost cloth covers for my precious orchids, and all my veggies that go through the winter. Also two nice little greenhouse shelf units with zippered plastic covers for the orchids. See the big water jugs on the bottom shelf? (I put used coffee grounds in the right hand one to see if it heated up more being a dark color, and it did)

Buds, OMGosh I wish I had the space for a nice large more-permanent gh! That is going to be so nice and you will be so happy to have it! Our winters are not long or harsh where I live. But to have a safe place for all my lovelies would be so great.

The heaters I have are not plant heaters, but heaters I bought specifically to heat the plant area in the winter and used no where else. I, too, see no reason to fear the heaters. They are electric and plug into a proper outlet. What's more, the safety feature on them turns it off automatically if tipped over or if it over heats for whatever reason. IDK what my DH and GF are thinking but they are thinking the worse, a fire. I understand that. There are many space heater fires and death each winter.

A cheap easy way for passive solar heating is to paint 2ltr soda bottles black and fill them with water. I use these in my greenhouse and actually sit plants on them that are especially sensitive to cold .. they manage to keep the soil temperature about 5 degrees warmer.

Anne, I do something similar, but instead of painting the bottles, I just put used coffee grounds in the water. Makes the water a nice dark brown.

We buy 2 1/2gal. jugs of water for our yearly hurricane supplies, and after we use the water up, I refill them for heat sinks, too. C/w coffee grounds. The bigger jugs stay warm longer.

I had a friend in Salt Lake City who heated his greenhouse with those plastic storage tubs from Wal-Mart, filled with water. They not only warmed up in the sun, they helped humidify the air, too. If it got really cold and through the short days in winter, he would sometimes use a waterbed heater to keep the water a little warmer. They come with a thermostat and everything. Very energy efficient.

Frost is coming here, if not tomorrow night, then the next night for sure. Slinging plants around all weekend, more yet to migrate. I wouldn't want to try to count how many different individuals are crammed in all of them, (and some little cuttings from different people look like same plants,) but hope to keep the number of pots in the house under 100 this winter.

Sandi, 2 of those little heaters are the only heat we use in the house, some really cold nights we plug in a 3rd. Five rooms & bathroom in a house that's so UN-weather prepared you can see curtains move inside when the wind blows hard. (We like the fresh air.) Elec everything including water, it's rarely over $150 (month) for the coldest part of winter. Usually no static in hair either. I absolutely can't stand that. As far as an electric heater goes, I think they're the safest. The actual heater could catch fire (as could any electrical gadget) but can't catch anything else on fire unless you threw a blanket over it or something like that. It just doesn't radiate that much heat away from direct contact with it.

Hard to believe the temp will drop 40+ degrees tomorrow, but not taking chances. Most of this is either already inside or on its' way...

Fun times!

It's going to be in the upper 20's Wednesday night where I live .. we normally don't get hard freezes til December. Thankfully everything is tucked away in the gh's for the winter.

Looks like the same over all the SE, with the exception of mid and south FL. Here in NE Mississippi, we are supposed to get down to 28 F Tuesday AM, 25 F Wednesday AM, and then 32 F Thursday AM. I am walking around outside barefoot this afternoon. These unusually-early low temps will give me a good indication whether my super-duper bubble wrap on the two greenhouses is effective.

Global warming I'm sure.

Yeah, I'm sweating my [parts] off bringing these plants (and assorted tables, risers) inside! A few have ants, so are soaking in buckets of water until the rest of the ants find their way - away - somewhere else. Luckily not as many as previous years - I think - I hope. Had to sit down for a few & have a nice cool glass of tea.

No time for tea here! I'm dragging pots too. We're supposed to have our first freeze Wed. morning. I don't think it'll be that cold, but I don't want to chance it. Good to hear about the electric heaters. We have a little place a the lake that has propane heat. I'm not convinced that it's safe, so I don't like to go up in winter. I read your heater report to DH. We have to go up soon to have some work done. I'm going to hit Home Depot and get a couple of those and see if they work out for us. Thanks for the tip. BTW, your baskets on the porch are lovely!

We won't freeze Wed morning but 33º is a bit too cold for my comfort, even worse for my Tropicals. I was going to have a relaxing Tomorrow, but it looks like I will be preparing my most tender plants for a couple days of intolerable night temps. <~~~~Says the ATPHeat Lover. Brrrrrrrrrrr!

Feeling very lucky that we are just barely catching the bottom end of this cold front! Our lows predicted to be mid-50's tomorrow night. Still, that will slow down a lot of my stuff! Filling up my heat sink jugs with coffee/water today to help keep the orchids a bit warmer! Don't think I'll break out the blankies just yet, thankfully.

Still 80deg. and partly cloudy out there right now . . . Very muggy, as we get a blast of tropical wind from the south ahead of the front.

Just came from ordering new decking at Lowe's and they had some gorgeous Hibiscus. Then in my driveway, the coral barleria is blooming nicely. Close-up pic shows the real color better despite bad focus. The pistil is lavender!