You''l need to vent the houses on sunny winter days, but it should work for everything. I actually had parsley come back (in the ground) this year, but it's a biennial, so I wouldn't expect much from it in the second season.

Al

Keep them off the ground and they should do fine in planters. The temperature at earth level is always much much colder than that a foot or two higher. If you think you are going to have a cold really snap, wrap the planters with s string of large bulbed clear Christmas lights, and throw a sheet or plastic shower curtain over the whole shebang.

jan

Thanks, Al and Jan. We use that hoop house for fresh greens production ala Eliot Coleman. I keep floating row cover supported by #9 gauge wire over the beds in winter but never thought about the Christmas lights as a localized source of heat. It sounds like venting during the day, which is part of the chore routine morning and evening, the lights and putting the planters on supports of some kind will be the way to go.

Thanks again.

Actually Jan, pots resting on the ground or the garage floor will be considerably warmer than pots separated from the ground or floor by a foot or two. You lose the steady geothermal conductance of heat through the pot bottom when you lift it. Heat transfer from conduction is much more efficient than by convection, and the 1/2 degree warmer temps because of the air stratification when the pot is a foot higher will not even come close to offsetting geothermal gain.

Al