I know what you mean. I too found my G/H difficult and good info on small g/h meager. I know you say you don't have electricity yet, but I would suggest you get it soon. I find the best thing in the g/h is a fan running 24/7. I have a fan and an electric heater to keep things just above freezing. Without a fan, everything gets mouldy and slimy. I overwinter plants that are tender in our climate and start seeds and plant divisions in the springtime. I grow my tomatoes outside but I know a lot of people use their g/h for them. Make sure that the variety of tomato is the right one for your area.

Thanks Dotty! That's the kind of help I need. Get electricity out there and a fan and heater! I can do that. Soon... just as soon as my husband recovers enough from his surgery to do it for me! Or supervise me doing it. We fixed the burst pipes in the barn that way!

I'd love MORE suggestions!

When you say make sure the variety is the right one for the area, there's no trick to that other than reading the labels or tags is there?

Annie, you need to find a good local gardener who is willing to help you. They can tell you the right varieties for your area, and how to make the best use of your greenhouse. Otherwise, it's going to take forever to get up to speed. Or find a good book on NW gardening.

About greenhouses: they are not a cure-all. If you try to keep them warm in the winter, it's going to cost a fortune. As energy becomes more expensive and scarce, heated greenhouses are going to become very unappealing. This is how I use my greenhouse in Portland, OR: I don't heat it unless the temperature drops below 25F. In fact, I ventilate it all Winter long with open vents, not fans. So my energy cost is just about zero. I keep hardy perennials in it that are not big enough to be planted in the ground. I grow plants in it that are too rare or valuable to be placed outside. In the Fall, I start hardy annuals from seed in the greenhouse. I also use it for cold treatment of seeds. In Spring and Fall, I use it to gain a couple of months of growing time. This Spring, I will be growing salad greens in large pots in the greenhouse.

In March, I start my tomato plants under fluorescent lights in the house. This is very energy-efficient, since all the waste heat from the light fixtures goes right into heating the house. When they are big enough (around the end of April), I will repot them and place them in the greenhouse. By this time, the weather will be warm enough that I don't need to heat the greenhouse. In late May, I plant them out into the yard. This is an important point: warm-weather crops should not be rushed into the ground in this climate. Wait until late May at least. You can also grow the tomatoes in the greenhouse all Summer, but it's a lot of fussing with water and ventilation and hand-pollinating.

If you are keeping hardy roses in your greenhouse, you do not want to heat the greenhouse very much. Don't let it go above 45F, or the roses will break dormancy early. Keep the vents open. Once your plants start actively growing, you will have to keep them from freezing, and they will become heat "junkies". Also, if they start growing too early, there is not enough light in this climate, and you will have to hang metal halide lights in the greenhouse. The best thing is to keep them dormant by keeping the greenhouse cold. Actually, I don't like to keep containerized woody plants in the greenhouse at all. I place them on the ground outside, and mulch the pots with several inches of bark mulch or wood chips. The mulch moderates the temperature changes that the roots experience. It works great.

Find an old-time gardener and bake him/her some cookies. Ask questions and take notes.

It's like taking on a pet: a certain minimum investment and regular attention is required. I see quite a few hobby greenhouses of models like might have been bought on impulse at garden shows sitting around empty or being used to store junk and tools.

Here are some good things about a greenhouse, even if it's unheated:
1. You don't get rained and snowed on when you are working on your plants.
2. You can protect your plants from critters.
3. You can decide how cold your plants are going to get. So you can save your plants if there is a very bad freeze, just by turning on the heat, and/or using an insulating mat of some kind that you throw over the plants.
4. You can grow alpines and other plants that don't like rain in the Winter. You decide what gets watered and when.
5. You can keep the greenhouse cooler in the Summer than the outside air, just by shading and using mist or evaporative cooling, that don't use much energy.
6. If you have benches, you don't have to kneel.