After many years of fighting to maintain an extensive series of bulb frames, when I bought my present place I invested in a large (800 square feet) greenhouse built with components from the OBC which Robin mentioned. It is a gable style with a twinwall polycarbonate roof and sides made of hardware cloth (a strong wire product with a mesh of about 1 cm square). The supporting structure is steel, painted, set in concrete footings but not with a full foundation. It's pretty over-engineered, but what a relief to have no maintenance other than getting the roof and gutters cleaned! Rather than benches, there are raised beds on each side of a center aisle wide enough for a wheelbarrow, retained by concrete-block walls about 18 inches high. I laid commercial woven groundcloth, which Robin also describes, as a lining between and some way up the block walls, raised the level within them using discarded soil and sod from the landscaping that was going on, then filled on that with 12 to 14 inches of coarse sand. At first I planted all my bulbs directly into the sand, but there was a drainage problem on one corner, so I've now converted that side to a plunge bed for bulbs in pots; the other side is still directly planted. The plunge bed has a narrow path down the middle for maintenance, but a lot of the weeding and so on has to be done by walking along the tops of the block walls and stepping very gingerly into the beds when the plants are in growth. This is good for practicing balance. I have few pest problems in the greenhouse as long as I keep the door closed, but weed seeds blow in badly, especially from the Eccremocarpus that grows on the outside of one section. Since I live in a temperate climate (Portland, Oregon), this greenhouse is unheated. I grow almost no South African bulbs, and no tropicals (this means there's not much for me in the BX). All the plants in the greenhouse require, or at least tolerate, dry summer dormancy. I do sprinkle the pots occasionally in summer to prevent excessive drying. Bulbs that need summer moisture and that won't do in the open garden grow in pots on stands on the roofed patio. I believe in growing bulbs as "hard" as they can tolerate in order to keep them in character, robust and compact. My "Mediterranean house" offers mainly moisture control, not warmth, but having the plants in the ground (directly or in plunged clay or mesh pots) moderates both temperature and soil moisture. I also have a little wooden shed with windows and a glazed roof (recycled patio doors), fitted with shelves made of plastic grids used for commercial greenhouse benches. I use it for growing seedlings, moving those that are in growth to the top shelves for full light. It has a potting bench and space below the shelves for storage, and is very handy. I had it fitted with "barn doors" that can be opened wide for ventilation, and I close them during bad cold spells. It takes some self-discipline to restrict one's collection to species that don't need supplemental heat, but I think I got something out of my system at my former house, which had a heated solarium and a wider range of plants. I'm happy now with what I can grow with less fuss. Jane McGary, Portland, Oregon, USA _______________________________________________ pbs mailing list pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/… Unsubscribe: <mailto:pbs-unsubscribe@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net>