hello alison, I stayed in Kenosha for a summer, I know how brutal those summers can be up there. Theres nothing orchid-unfriendly about those racks, they'd work just fine. Though over the summer theres really no point in using the plastic covering. The point of it is to hold heat and humidity, both of which you have in abundance up there ;) It'd just cook your plants out there. As for shading, it depends really. Where are you going to grow them outside? Is there anything already there where you plan to put them (tree, porch, etc...) that will provide them shade, and for what part of the day?...questions along those lines. You may not need shading at all, unless you don't have any form of protection at all. So to advise you there, we gotta know. A couple cheat answers without knowing your growing conditions: 1. shade cloth like is used on greenhouses. I'm sure a number of people here grow on shelving of some form or other that has shade cloth covering it. Do a google search for shade houses. Those specifically might be a little big for you but it can give you some ideas for exterior shelving. 2. Get orchids that are appropriate to the protected areas (or lack thereof, if thats the case) so you dont' have to worry about shading. All day sun and heat? Forget phals, get Vandas (slight exaggeration, even vandas need a LITTLE bit of protection). Got an area that only gets an hour of sun a day, dump the catt and den and get yourself some ludisia and phals. Etc....whatever you get you can most likely overwinter with supplemental lighting on your new greenhouse cart ;) Good luck!

I've been hoping for some clarification on the pros and cons of leaving Aluminet shadecloth in place during the winter. I have read in this forum that it's best to remove it for the winter, but I've been confused by this website, which says that one of the benefits of Aluminet is it works as a thermal blanket, reflecting "invisible heat radiation" back into the greenhouse at night, helping to maintain warmer temperatures. I notice that this page does not mention either summer or winter, which has added to my confusion. I've read that Aluminet is most efficient at reducing summer heat gain when used on the outside of the greenhouse, but I have mine installed inside, hanging a few inches below the roof. (My thought was, if this works passably well for me, I won't have to battle keeping it attached to the outside during our wicked winds.) As an aside, I have in fact kept mine up all winter, but I think I must have an odd situation that would not apply to the original poster. My problem here in the desert is too much light and too much heat, even on sunny winter days; without the shadecloth I'd definately have scorching even in winter. In fact, I thought 40% would be enough for me since I grow succulents requiring bright light. I know now that in my bright and hot climate I should have ordered at least 50%. Anyway, I thought I'd mention that website link above. I don't know that Shad has read that website, but it has definately had me a bit muddled as I tried to understand the winter/summer issue with Aluminet. Sheri

I am in Corpus so our heat will be about the same. I put on 70% shade cloth and my roof panels are 25%. A grower down at Rivera told us his shade cloth is 90% and he grows tomatoes for resale. I guess our sun and heat are very intense. I would go with a min. of 70%. Yesterday it was 93 here and my 18 x 24 greenhouse never got over 82. Before it was getting around 113 so I am very happy with the shade cloth. I'm not sure how to figure the 25% roof and an additional 70% on top. I think my shade is somewhere around 85% now and I do have tomatoes and other sun lovers inside. They all seem to be very happy including my cactus!

Excellent, clean idea. I also like your granite sidewalk. :)