hot & sunny... what about shade cloth in the garden?

16 years ago

i grow salad crops through the cool season. when the days are short and the sun low, you want them in the sunniest spot of the garden. but now, everything (except okinawan spinach!) is suffering in the may sun, no matter how much i water it. i have a few chard plants and some strawberries that needed shade, so i rigged up these (flimsy and none too beautiful) functional shades from shade cloth i got at lowes (a little over a buck a foot by, maybe, 5 foot -- see the picture). a staple gun, some bamboo and a couple seconds. over my celery and cress, i just laid it right down and secured it with bricks.

it seems to work very well, lessening the poor plants' suffering at four in the afternoon. the cloth seems really durable -- i imagine i'll get a few years use out of it.

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Comments (12)

atreelady
16 years ago
Hey - That's a great idea!
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yogacathy
16 years ago
Thank you for the idea! It's a good one :)

Cathy
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Shade cloth provides shade, Aluminet provides shade AND heat reflection. In your situation I would go 100% Aluminet. I found it very easy to work with and would highly recommend it, I will probably never go back to shade cloth again. The cheapest place I found is: http://www.shadeclothstore.com/deptsaluminetshadecloth.html I ordered it without grommets and bought grommets from: http://www.shadeclothstore.com/products/clipitsplasticgrommets__aluminetshadecloth.html These grommets worked fine and are dirt cheap. One of the better foggers is the minifogger by Hydrofogger: http://www.hydrofogger.com/inc/sdetail/152 You are probably going to need a swamp cooler. I experimented with mine in different positions and found that it worked best for me if it was sitting on the ground (1" off cement) and blew the cool, moist air under the benches. 2 fans create a circular air movement under the benches, there is an additional fan at bench level. Air moves up through the plants and leaves the greenhouse through a generous 2' x 1' opening at the highest place of the green house. With these measure I keep the temp below 80 even on the hottest days in Southern California. This describes the situation in the 'Cold Greenhouse'. My solution for temperature control for the 'Hot Greenhouse' is to make it into a lath house during the summer month. I don't need a greenhouse in the summer, only in the winter, so I constructed a convertible structure which will be a heated green house in the winter and an open lath house in the summer. The top 2' of 3 of the walls are hinged and can open up. 12' x 14' of space has 36' of 2' panels open during the hot months. That, along with fans keep the temperature at the ambient backyard level. As it gets colder in the fall I will begin to close these panels and eventually the heating system will kick in. I would like to tell you that with these open walls, no swamp cooler is necessary but cannot say so as I have another factor in play. The 'Hot' and the 'Cold' greenhouses share a dividing wall and the air from the cool side is exhausted into the hot side thus adding cooling and humidity to that side. I believe that with the open walls I probably would not have neede a swamper but am not 100% sure. Good luck, you'll have a lot of fun. Nick
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I dont have anything especially helpful or definitive, I'm afraid, but an idea that you might or might not be able to use. When we lost a huge maple in the center of our yard (I hated and loved it - the kids had their tree house out there and there were swings hanging from the branches, but it was a very messy, greedy tree) I looked into these triangular "shade sails" as a way to maintain some shade in the yard. They are pretty inexpensive, and come in different colors and sizes. I always thought they'd look quite nice in the right setting. This would be a different way to go than covering the plants, but might work for you. Here is a link that might be useful: shade sail at overstock
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tony_k_orlando
16 years ago
Hi ILL,

Be prepared for the winds. While the shade cloth may protect the plants from the sun, the shade cloth beat everything to death I had growing behind mine many yrs ago.

Like you say, it really helps out. My experience says a very strong support is a necessity.
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cindeea
16 years ago
Hey Michael! I actually put up some frost cloth this weekend. Dennis helped me cut the Tithonia Waaaaaaaay back this weekend. However, it left my pergola plants, lettuce, herbs, broms and orchinds in blazing late-afternoon sun. He fount the frost cloth and I cut it like a window shade to cover the top and hang down the sunny side of the bergola. I cut V shaped slits in the cloth for wind to pass through. I took two thick dowels, rolled them in the ends of cloth and used a staple gun to adhere the fabric to the dowels. It ain't beautiful but have to do until the Tithonia starts leafing out again.
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cindeea
16 years ago
Where the FREAK did I leave my spell-check!! sorry for all the typos, I sent before proofing.
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countrynest
16 years ago
Really good idea! I had a similar idea for my gardenias newly transplanted and in shock. Something similar will work,I think.
Hey Michael! also letting you know that the Okinawan Spinach
that you gave me is doing great. I really appreciate you giving me one. Can't wait to start harvesting I liked the taste of the one you let me try.
Felix
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ladyaustin96
16 years ago
The heat seems to be getting my spinach as well...I have a couple of rows of young plants...and I keep watering hoping that they will survive. I may have to put cloth over the new beds as well if this keeps up. I have invested a lot of time and money in the veggie gardens...would hate to lose it! Any suggestions?

See pics in the picasa album

Here is a link that might be useful: Veggie Garden
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naplesgardener
16 years ago
What I use is umbrellas, whatever size I have on hand (certainly haven't needed them for rain lately :-))

The amount of shade in my garden could fit in a thimble. No such thing as "north" side. It ALL gets sun. And I have no trees.

Right now I'm using an old beach size umbrella without the bottom 1/2 shaft (so it's short) stuck into a concrete block (the side with a hole) for just-dug-up-and-moved potted plants and for seedlings being conditioned for full sun.
If it got windy you'd have to tie it down but that would be easy with tent stakes and string.

Denise
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an_ill-mannered_ache
Original Author
16 years ago
tony -- you're right about the wind, but i've found that when it falls on the plants, no problem -- it's so light it doesn't harm the plants growing. i have to right it every other day or so, and wait until the next gust.

so, light stakes mean that it gets knocked over easily but it doesn't harm the plants when it happens.

ladyaustin... it's too late really for spinach. maybe the shade cloth will help, but i find that spinach grows well only in winter here (and i mean january and february). chard, in particular seafoam chard (pinetree seeds) performs well for me into june. (MUCH better than bright light or the other colored chards.) it's a bit better at fending off slugs &c., too -- the leaves are really savoy (crinkly) and it seems to turn off the bugs/slugs. i've had somewhat rotten luck with it this year -- i could not get it to germinate for some reason (bad seeds?), and then when i DID get it growing, the slugs and worms just went at it. now, though, it's too hot for the slugs, so if i can keep it going for another month, i'll be happy.

if you've never had chard -- it ROCKS. much tastier, i think, than spinach, without the oxalic acid (gritty feel) and the stems can be cooked like asparagus or celery. two veg in one!
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pnbrown
16 years ago
Chard has no oxalic acid? That's be good, because I eat a ton of it, but I thought it had some.....I've been growing a variety called 'Lucullus', the best eating ever - cooks down tender as spinach. Sounds like it's similar to the seafoam. Havn't tried it in fla yet though I will next year if I get a good crop of seed this fall.

Would the spun stuff often used for bug protection give enough shade? That can be put right over large crops or on seedlings or even just-seeded beds.
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an_ill-mannered_ache
Original Author
16 years ago
pnb, every little bit helps, right?
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pnbrown
16 years ago
Oxalic acid, or shade?
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hot & sunny... what about shade cloth in the garden?

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hot & sunny... what about shade cloth in the garden?

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