I thought I responded a couple days ago -I guess it's gone to cyber space. Hurricane CHarley knocked down 5 huge trees on my property, there was no damage to our house or the houses next door so I considered that a warning and now have no tall trees at all. We are 11 ft above sea level and a block from a tidal canal so I am somewhat concerned about flooding although we've never had any flooding the 29 years we've been in this house. If we have a hurricane warning I can drop the shade and put the orchids on the pea gravel that's there and maybe just cover them with the shade fabric. If we have flooding,I'll have bigger concerns than my orchids. I'm going to contact the sprinkler guy and find out how realistic it would be to run a pipe to the area and put in a sprinkler head. We are allowed to use sprinkler water twice a week for four hours so it would be a nice back up water plan.

We got the aluminet up yesterday, on the coldest May 27th in our memory. I have 2, because I underestimated the need to cover the side facing NE, but it may be just as well, because while at 12 x 16 my GH is not all that large, it's over 12 ft. high, so for oldsters like us, hanging one on each side is easier than trying to get one huge one over the whole GH. We mounted SS screw hooks into the GH ridge, spaced 1 ft. apart to match the grommets on the aluminet, so getting it up is easy enough. But it take two people on ladders, one at each end. We pull the aluminet up and hook in the first few grommets, then reach through the vents to get to the rest, then attach them to more hooks set in the base using bungees, to allow movement, as the netting needs to stretch a bit. I did not make vent cut outs because if mounted with the warp(?) (Or is it woof?) lines running horizontally, aluminet has more then enough stretch for the vents to open under it, creating screening as well as shade. But I was concerned about the vent corners tearing the aluminet, so put 3/4" square, 1/2" thick self stick bumpers on them. They are just enough to keep the corners from poking into the mesh.

If you live in a humid area, misting or fogging may not be enough to cool your greenhouse in those hot, humid summer months. When all else fails you can create your own shade by putting shade cloth on your greenhouse. Shade cloth is a commercially available material for hanging over your greenhouse glazing to cool it in summer months. They are usually made of loosely woven polyester or even aluminum and can be found in varying densities or degrees of shade from appx. 5% to 95%. Remember that shading will affect your plant growth so chose as low a density as you can get away with. Most plants will do best with a maximum of 40% - 60% shade. When growing orchids, 75% or higher maybe needed to get correct light levels. Choosing a shade cloth with grommets will make it much easier to install. Use nylon cord or rope to secure the shade cloth to your greenhouse frame. If your greenhouse has roof vents that open you may have to install your shade cloth in sections to accommodate this. Shade cloth is open weave fabric so it can go directly over windows. Its best to attach the shade cloth so it can be rolled up or retracted as needed. There are also compounds available to be applied to your greenhouse glazing. These will wash off if you receive much rain and have to be reapplied. If you get one that is not water soluble then you have to use a cleaner to remove it when summer is over.

Hello Mudhouse, how are things, we haven't talked in awhile. You my friend got me through a greenhouse build 10x12 HFGH. You also helped me with many links to you on snow support. We had a mild winter initally but then all hell broke lose like the year before. Snowed everyday or every other day, 5 - 10 in. at a time. I think in the month of Feburary alone we received at least 5 ft in that month plus the other months. Snow in some parking lots went away in Apr. monster piles. Anyway, I used EMT tubing and ran it from side to side and front to back and accross. Then I ran tubing up to the roof and connect it from the EMT running accross. On the Harbor Freight I also went to Lowes and got another support and ran it from front to back in the middle of the roof for more support. From the ground I used 2 inch schelude 40 PVC pipe and connected it to the EMT tubing. I also made all my benches out of the same PVC pipe. It may sound confusing but it resembles some of the pics I saw people sent you for snow support. My doors worked fine all winter. I had pieces of metal that I placed on the tracks when the doors were close so snow would not get on them. When I wanted to get in the greenhouse I just picked them up and slide open the doors. I mainly used one door all the time. I also put a fairly heavy multi-purpose grease on the door tracks and they are still sliding good today. I made some new supports to keep the doors from moving off the track and put adjustable rods on the outside of the doors with a adjustable turnbuckle in the middle. Just like a barn door or gate adjustment to make tension on the door. Now during the summer I am going to make a little roof over my door tracks to keep off any snow. The gutter sucked and held back all the snow trying to slide off the roof. I purchased a big brush with a long handle and purchased foam insulation that goes on plumbing pipes and put it around the brush and taped it on. Now I can use the handle and put it up on the greenhouse roof and it fits between the panels and I pull off the snow when I get 5 inches or so. Very easy and the foam slides on the roof and doesn't hurt the roof panels. Anyway, just wanted to say thanks and I should send some pics. Sorry, I don't have any now.