Robert Hinrich

One of the secrets is growing varieties that mature early. Another is something that fruits multiple times a year in its native habitat. Hopefully you will get at least one crop. Some things that might work. Citrus  is one of the easiest. Start with a Myers Lemon.  Many varieties like Zone 9 and some even go to 7. Jaboticaba fruits many times a year. Papaya can fruit in a few as 9 months from seed. White sapote might work. And the only tropical native to the U.S. Pawpaw, hardy to zone 5.
    I am on the southern Oregon coast zone 9b. I am building a 20x40 tropical greenhouse, kind of my retirement project. I have been a carpenter for 40 years and gardening is my passion so it will be pretty spectacular. Gothic arch style, made from bent Port Orford clear cedar. Our climate barely sees freezes. Much of Florida is zone 9 but we do not have the summer heat here. Hardly ever gets above 80. Our summers on the south coast are dry and clear so I think i will have plenty of heat in the summer, I don't need it in the winter as zones are based only on winter minimums so we are good already. A greenhouse in town has Oranges, tangerines and limes that produce fruit.
I already have, Ice-cream banana, Orange, Lime, Myers lemon, Jaboticaba, avocado, Papaya, Guava, Mango, starfruit, Dragon Fruit, Sugar Apple. I hope my greenhouse is big enough.

   Joseph has is right, the automatic openers are great. I had one in my GH and I could tell from the house when it was warm in the greenhouse by watching it open. Another automated albeit expensive alternative is a solar powered ventilator. One of the best uses for solar is heat ventilation. The fan will only have power when the sun shines and if the panel is oriented the same direction as your greenhouse will come on slowly and increase to maximum speed as the sun becomes more direct. It only runs when you need it to run.

The funny thing is I feed mushroom compost to my worms. I add spent brewers grains.

I realy like Travis Johnsons idea. In fact I am preparing to build a 24x40 model of one. The down side is you must have at least some wood working skills. Here is a great video and this guy has plans.  

Hello C Dinsmor,
I also grew up in Oregon in the Columbia River Gorge. GO DUCKS! I have been in Idaho for 15 years now. I think a good person of contact would be Richard Kuhnel of http://www.gentleharvest.org/. He is very active in permaculture design in our area. He may know of a farm or even have some projects you could get involved in this summer. Glad you are here on permies.

Hi James,
Glad to here from you. Let me start by saying I am not permiculture design certified, but I have studied the art for a few years now and think there are some great ideas that can help retain water on your property. So Athol gets about 24 inches of rain a year, or 650,000 gallons per acre. If you could collect all the water from one acre you could create a 1/4 acre pond eight feet deep. So what I am getting at is you have plenty of water you just don't retain it. On contour swailes could feed the pond. If you still have piles from the trimmings hugelkultur would work great.
About getting together. My job takes me out of town half the year. I will be home in a week and a half. Arsenios and I PMed and didn't get to meet on my last days off. Maybe the three off us can get together. What do you think Arsenios?

Hi George.
Wine Caps are very easy to grow. Any hardwood sawdust will do. Last year I bought a bag of spawn, chipped up some alder that grows like a weed along my creek and made a fine bed. Enjoyed maybe five pounds or so of them. This year nothing is up yet but the bed is a solid mass of mycelium when scratch of the top quarter inch. I have read that wood pellets are a great way to increase your spawn. When they are made they are heated and so they are pretty much sterile in the bag. Just wet them down and add the spawn.
I had a small 4'x3' patch and expanded it in the first summer.

Hi aresinios,
Don't know if this post is still going but..... I have 20 acres in Laclede about 18 miles east of sandpoint. We have been here for 14 years and we live off grid. We have about 1000 watts of solar power. A year round creek divides the property in half. I have a hand built ram pump in the creek.
One the permaculture side of things my wife has 10 goats that supply tons of organic material each year that mostly I run threw my worm beds before using the castings on my garden and in the greenhouse. My green house is 15x36 framed in cedar taken from the property and milled by a friend down the road. The winter home of the worms is a 4'x14 foot bed in the middle of the greenhouse, yes that means about 100,000 red worms. The garden is about 60x60. We grow peppers, tomatoes and melons in the greenhouse and just about everything else in the garden. We have a plum tree, pear tree, raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, and rhubarb.
The project for this year is a food forest. I have about 100 trees I bought last year and wintered over on top of the worm bed. Fruit nut and nitrogen fixing trees, as well as ornamental like dogwood and prune and cherry trees.
Wow that even sound impressive to me but it has taken a decade and a half of work and as you can see I am not done. Oh ya what about the ponds I have planed for my seasonal creek. Ya and hugelkultur beds, and mushrooms and............ Maybe another 15 year and I will be done. No, I doubt I will ever be done, its my life style.

Jim Cleary. Your Picture and plan seem very close to my Idea for a greenhouse heater. I plan on using a 3x2x10 (400 gallon) galvanized stock tank. Still haven't worked out what to use between the flue and tank thou. Sand would work the easiest but would dry out and may not transfer heat as well a piece of hard dense rock. I might check with the local granite supplier and see about scrap counter top pieces and embed them in sand. Also insulating heavily beneath and on the sides of the flue would help direct the heat to go up. There is the matter of what to cover the tank with also. I plan on using the top of the tank as a heated seed starting bench. Don't want to fill the greenhouse with steam but I don't want to seal the tank and cause a pressure build up so I think I will vent it to the outside.
My heat riser is three pieces of well casing, ( I am in North Dakota as I write). Inner is 9 inches middle is 16 inches and the outer is 24, all are 3/8 inches thick. That ought to last. Is there a maximum height for the riser? All three liners are just over 4 feet long. I will report back with pictures in the spring when I fire it up.