I hope you can see this picture from Country Living Magazine. Isn't that an amazing structure? I was thinking about growing some English Ivy over the North side of my greenhouse to help keep it warm in the winter. It is the shaded side of the greenhouse. and so what if a few vines meander over the front and the other side?? What do you think??

http://clv.h-cdn.co/assets/15/...

It certainly looks beautiful!!

Interesting, but I don't see any "warmth" to be gained. Last I saw, my plants don't produce heat.

Plants on walls provides another layer of insulation, perhaps not heat, exactly, but insulation properties much like your solar blanket does @drdawg, but of course, certainly not the very same intensity. I have a bunch of English Ivy because as you know it grows fast and can be invasive. But I am reading it should only be grown on brick or stone as it is strong enough to bring down a poly panel like on the GH. So, I guess that's out for now. The ugly Mylar panels will go up again next winter to guard against the north side cold.

Do you also use some solar blanket material, Cheryl?

No, @Drdawg. We usually don't get cold enough to require more than a little extra heat inside the GH for frost protection here in the deep South. I was able to keep the GH at 65º this winter. It cost a pretty penny but the plants thrived in it, like winter never happened. I think with better inside insulation, and dropping it down to a liveable 55º, I will save some money next year.

I am thinking growing vines in a long trough with trellis it would be pretty and add that bit to the North side insulation. Adding the greenery would also hide it from our HOA.

I am glad I don't have to deal with an HOA. In fact, I wouldn't live under an HOA authority. I'm sort of independent.

Well, I do but I don't, you get what I'm saying??

Yep, my kind of philosophy!

(that's why I live out in the middle of nowhere )

But I'd rather live in the middle of somewhere!

HOA's can be good in some cases, albeit, not many, we just talked to someone who has been using theirs to deal with sloppy problem neighbors. In most cases though the bureaucratic, authoritarian exercise of power seems to be their only goal.

Too many housing options to have an HOA run my life. If I want to leave my garage door open, it is no ones business but my own.

I can leave my garage door open without issues. It's things like dead cars up on blocks in driveways, RVs parked for extended time on driveways, grass growing over the curb, cars/trucks parked on the (narrow) streets for extended time, fences in bad need of repair, hot pink or purple houses and the like, that our HOA scouts around for and I am glad for it. But limiting the size of my greenhouse I don't like.

Eric4home said: But I'd rather live in the middle of somewhere!

Ric, I don't have to drive too far to get to "somewhere" ...