I get that, Chris. We have to choose the perfect time and the weather has a lot to do with that. I have been holding back bringing the plants out despite the lack of freezes predicted. That one last heat wave we had a few weeks back, many plants got scorched and I lost 2 of my little potted plants. I am heart broken because they were in there for protection instead of going dormant at a young size. And here they went and got smoked!

My wife keeps telling me to not bring anything out yet and we could get a freeze. It's happened before in April and I remember some years back getting 2" of snow on Easter Sunday. I finally broke down and bought a shade cloth for the one I have my orchids in. It was just getting too hot for them even though it's winter it was still getting up to 100 when the sun is on the west side. It's cut the temp down at least 15 degrees as far as I can see and it's working pretty good on the east side too where all my seedlings are.

Thanks for the staking ideas. Right now I'm trying to determine whether it's worth trying to put the GH back up. I have it rolled into a corner against my house for now, but it can't stay there. The cover is torn but I'm hoping for now at least some good tape will fix it up. Unfortunately where I had it before is over a gas pipeline easement that runs through my property, so I can't go too deep and I can't have anything permanent there. Everything is currently on the back porch, but if we do get a late cold snap I cannot possibly move all that in the house. On the other hand, I don't want to go through putting that back up just to see it become a parachute again. Really wishing I had something more solid, this is one of those kits so not really meant to last that long but it's only been 2 years.

Kim

Kim, here is the one I have two of http://www.shelterlogic.com/sh... the first one I paid full price, over $300.00 the 2nd I got for the price you see as they're on clearance and being discontinued. It's 10' W x 13' L x 8' H. Here's another one for $105.00 http://www.shelterlogic.com/sh... but I'm not sure of the size or anything. If you can find out how deep the pipeline is then you should be able to still stake it down. I wouldn't think the pipeline would be very close to the surface would it?

No I think it's 3-4' down so most stakes should be fine. I have almost exactly the same one as what you listed here except it's green. I like it ok except for the zippers on the doors, my mom has one that's a little bigger and older and the plastic zippers wore out this year. Dad has old t-posts in the shed, they are more like 6 or 7 ft but still might work ok. I think they went with wood stakes on theirs, and so far theirs has survived although I know they've worried a few times.

This spring I was considering removing the plastic cover and just having the shade cloth up so that it was a shade house for my hoyas and such. The GH just gets too hot in the summer. I did this before with one I had when I was back in B/CS, and it worked well for them. I'm just a little skiddish about doing it right now given it's not even the middle of March.

I'm not sure how your soil is but after about 18"-20" I hit rock in my back yard and the stakes start bending. If you go to www.growerssupply.com they have repair tape for greenhouses. That's where I got my shade cloth from.

Here, a little precip, not enough to catch up. Poor Mexico, however...and poor Monarchs...unfortunately, few have reached Texas yet, wish they all were.
https://weather.com/news/weath...

They are going to release the flood gates on Sunday. Currently the river is below flood stage@13ft. Flood stage is 19.3 ft. They are going to raise it to 19.6 ft. Why they purposely flood a new, dry area has always baffled me!

ShadyGreenThumb said:Why they purposely flood a new, dry area has always baffled me!

I've never understood that myself, Cheryl. If it's flooded up river, let it out slowly...why would you purposely just move the flood down river?

Well, I know that when a lake I know about gets really too full, they release water down stream, rather than put the lake area homes under water. The people with houses downstream aren't happy when it happens, but someone said that was a regulation put into place when they built the dam. But if it's below flood stage...yes, I don't understand that!

So are they purposely saving expensive lake homes like it sounds? There are many more homes and subdivisions than those around the lakes that will be in trouble when the water reaches them. They now say it will be above flood levels until Tuesday. The San Jacinto River is so high right now! We are not near it at all thankfully. I feel badly for those who live near it. But then I guess they know this has to happen??

Anyone heard from @ Horntoad ? Hope he didn't get flooded.

We've had so much rain lately that Lake Travis only needs one more foot to be back to normal level. Last time was in 2005. That's where our drinking water comes from.

That's really good news about Lake Travis.

Bubbles said:Anyone heard from @ Horntoad ? Hope he didn't get flooded.

I'm fine Sandi. Nothing major happened here. Minor street flooding at the most, not even that on the streets I travel. The yard is kind of marshy, but that's normal this time of year.

Bubbles said:We've had so much rain lately that Lake Travis only needs one more foot to be back to normal level. Last time was in 2005. That's where our drinking water comes from.

Lake Buchanan is up quite a bit as well. Buchanan was at severely low level for a long time. It was quite sad to go out and see all of the abandoned docks baking in the sun, some of them a good quarter mile from the nearest drop of water.

@Horntoad That's good news! It sure looked like most of Texas was under water at some point.

@needrain Yes, we can't even wash our cars with a bucket in our driveway! My car sits in the driveway under a big oak tree and the grackles congregate in the oak nearly every day. They make quite a mess of my car....nearly every day. We can only use a car wash service. Another reason to be glad for the rain!

Rainstorms that cause massive flooding and bring down small mountains in mud slides are useless for removing even a light coating of dust from the car.

@JamesAcclaims We have a little place at Lake LBJ. We were under water restrictions up there too. Our water day was Saturday here and also at the lake. We would water mornings here, then drive up to the lake to water after 7 pm. We were afraid to trust the sprinkler system for fear something would break. Not a great summer!

Yay for rain in Texas! Yay for our lakes! I don't think any of us want to be in a drought or restrictions again. I just didn't want all the rain to come down at once! So many got flooded out. But at least it washed some of the pollen away?

So glad to hear that Lake Travis is almost full! I lived and gardened in Austin for almost 17 years. Those last few years under the water restrictions sure took some of the fun out of gardening. We lived in the city limits and the City of Austin is more restrictive than some other areas. That never seemed right to me considering most of the water was coming from the same source. I put in a disappearing fountain one year in April and in August of that year stage 2 water restrictions were enacted and my design didn't meet the very strict guidelines. I was never able to use it again, so we took it out before we sold the house.