We got a copy of a book called "Solar Gardening" a couple of years ago, and some of the ideas are interesting, and some we already use. I am wondering if anyone is using their "growing pods" which are basically fancy insulated coldframes, using double layers of plastic glazing with a translucent fiber between the layers of glazing. In asking around, I found a couple of friends with the same interest in them that I have, but haven't found anyone who tried them as described in the book. Any one out there with any experience with them?

-- Jim (jiminwis@yahoo.com), March 06, 2000

Answers

My husband wanted to make some -- he likes gadgets -- but priced the materials and found they were going to cost way too much. I don't remember how much, but it was a lot more than the estimate in the book. So we didn't make any. The manufacturer of the fancy glazing is only about twenty-five miles from us, so the extra cost wasn't shipping. We found the same thing with chicken tractors, that the materials cost a lot more than the estimate in that book -- but we got materials anyway. (Part of the extra cost was buying hardware cloth instead of chicken wire, as racoons will tear chicken wire apart.)

-- Kathleen Sanderson (stonycft@worldpath.net), April 12, 2000.