Russell:

Have you considered floating row covers. We grow here all year long under two layers. No over heating and reduced water use. It protects from wind, hail, and critters. Just lay it over short hoops and hold the edges down with rocks.

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I made this by covering a carport aluminum frame with 6 mil plastic,UV treated, in 2003. It has just degraded from the sun and the plastic now has to be replaced. I use it year around. You can notice it is sited partly in a wooded area. In the background you can see a small greenhouse which I use as a propagation area with bottom heated space, a small incubator providing high temperatures for starting tropical plants. Al

Thanks for the "Follow-ups"!

I am just now doing first time R&D with row cover, fruitnut. Last year some good results came with bird netting, regular window screen and plastic used over low supports. Trying to measure cost benefit for our whole situation with row cover. I'll probably find that row covers are optimal to use for some things at some times. Thanks for the suggestion.

Your place looks like a paradise, Al .We have very few native trees,Just a stand alone live oak here and there. It's amazing how different a USDA zone can be. Ours is probably 19 in the Sunset Western Garden Book.

That carport set up look good, Al. I think any structure here would need a little more wind resistance, but not sure what yours goes through. Our neighbors big heavy trampoline was thrown a 100 yards in a fairly typical Santa Ana condition.

I do have salvaged supplies to build a greenhouse about the size you have. Just afraid of the solar heat gains kind of rendering it useless most of the time.

I have thought a lot about shade houses today, or something like a hybrid shade house/greenhouse/potting shed... A tough clear hinged roof with a shade cloth option, a potting shed for the north wall, a solid east wall with doors, and the ability to easily change the south and west walls seasonally from all plastic to all lightweight mesh screens. A structure like this plus a few heated germination chambers might work out well year round.

There is still the possibility that a poly tunnel with roll up sides and heavy end walls is the way to go. I have to find out if they can take the wind and won't heat up too much. You see very few of them inland San Diego County.

Our wind is not a serious problem here because of the woods and mountainous terrain. We do have trees falling or large branches falling into the plastic on occasion. The greenhouse gets too hot for use in the summer for growing plants, the carport however does not. Al

Good for you on the wind issues,Al. From the looks of things you have it figured out for your location. My stuff has to be solid, wind proof when I want it to be, and easy to vent to a high degree any day of the year.
We are allowed to build a 300 foot carport w/o permits. I guess someone might think it funny that I build it with clear corrugated panels and wrap the walls with plastic every winter ,but hey....what's a gardener to do?

Off topic, but I don't like Gubberment rules....

That's the good thing about living way out in the country like me, No permits required! I can build anything I want! I built a shed for my equipment 40 X 30, no problem.

Pretty on topic to me....the gov. rules and rackets.

This is what I ended up building for now. Two heated table top mini-hoop houses. I can change the covering from shade to plastic to insulated blanket easily with spring clamps. Each table has 40 feet of heat cable buried in two inches of sand, all on top of a 1.5" inches of styrofoam.

So far so good.All the plants are cool season stuff.... Trying peppers and tomatoes now.

[IMG]http://i1066.photobucket.com/albums/u408/Rustico_2009/germinationtable1.jpg[/IMG]

I'll try to figure out why the pic didn't post....

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