I have used old curtains. You can get them super cheap from charity thrift stores or the clearance aisle at discount stores. The sheers also make good bird netting.

rock oak, did you keep color and weight in mind? Do you think it makes any difference?

Thanks for that tip, btw. I'm now wishing I had saved all my old curtains over the years, lol. I will from now on.

I use the shade cloth. Just in case you didn't notice, it's actually 6 feet wide and folded in half to 3 ft. on the rolls.

WalMart has the same product in 6ft (also folded in half) x 15ft rolls for $22.95, which translates to $26.85 for 15ft of the Sutherlands, so you save about $4 at Walmart. Three rolls covered my 15ft x 18ft garden perfectly.

The color and weight depends on what you are protecting and what you are protecting it from. Generally, white or light colors reflect more and will keep the soil cooler, while dark colors will be hotter under but provide more shade.

If you really want to cover the garden in shade, use something more opaque and it will need to be up on stakes if it is heavier. The darker the shade under there, the more important it is to have air circulating from the sides. You also need to consider if you want to use something rain can get through, an open weave works better for that.

Back in May we used old, light color sheets to cover some transplanted landscape plants that were wilting when the weather got hot earlier than usual. Stakes were used to hold the fabric up and ensure air circulation. We would remove the covers at night and replace in the daytime. They all survived with this method and some have started blooming now. It doesn't rain much here, so didn't need to factor that in.

Maybe I should copy the idea to the redneck gardener thread....

ooh, add to the redneck thread that you can use old pillowcases. I use them to protect stuff from frostbite. Why not use them to shade individual plants? I put rocks on the edges to keep them down.

I only cover my tomatoes to protect from bugs, birds, and sun. The crinoline or tulle material I purchase for .99 per yard at fabric stores does a pretty good job for me. I think it reduces the intensity of the sun by about 20%. I use the large weave. You can use the smaller weave and reduce the intensity even more. I think you would get good aeration with either weave. It is also light enough to be used as a floating row cover. It typically lasts two to three years.

Ted

{{gwi:67881}}

Ooh, Ted, I love your mater covers! I just covered my individual maters, but now I'm thinking I'll tryy the whole plant next time.

prairie, that seems like a lot of work. How on earth do you cover your individual toms? Never thought of, or heard of, that one before.

Ted, I love your idea. Is the top, horizontal 2x4 affixed to the tomato cages? That's how it looks to me. What are the X pieces for?

trsinc,

I simply wired the 2"X4" to the top of the cagess and stapled the fabric to the board after rolling the fabric edge a couple of times. I use those black metal spring clips normally used to hold documents together to close the ends.

The crossovers in the background are the top of my A frame cucumber trellis. You can see my cucumber trellis and other beds in the link below.

Ted

Here is a link that might be useful: My raised beds

Here this will make it easier to see what the X pieces are.

Ted

{{gwi:67880}}

Prariepaintbrush,

I know a lady who makes little cloth baggies with drawstrings for her tomatoes. Do yours have drawstrings?

Ted :)

Thanks, Ted :)

That is one sturdy trellis! I followed your link and enjoyed what you wrote about your soil, etc. Kind of sounds like we are gardening similarly. I LOOSELY follow the SF thing. Meaning I plant closer than recommended but I find the SF technique to be too complicated. I have 3- 3 X 12 foot beds with cinder blocks stacked two high. I used regular dirt that I purchased from a yard (24 cubic yards so far - but the last bit is piled up and waiting for me to finish my beds. Most of the first load went into a retaining wall.) and added manure and compost. It's just one big crap shoot for me right now but I'm having fun experimenting.

Loved seeing your pics. Thank you for sharing.

Tammy

Hi all,
I know the question was"what you use" but I'd like to show "how I" use because I'm so darn proud of this thing. Plus I just got a new camera as DH broke mine and am dying to post a picture. Let me also say that I think you folks and also the folks on the cottage garden are some of the nicest on GW. Kim

Kim ~

Is that shade cloth or something else?

~ freshair

lol - well thank you for posting your pic, Kim. We all luuuv to see them.

That is neat! What is it? It kind of looks like a Roman Shade. Darn it, I left a bunch of those behind at a rent house once because they didn't fit the windows at the new house. I'm starting to rethink my "clean it out - purge, purge, purge" mentality.

Putting little bags on the maters isn't a lot of work if you hardly have any maters. :( Yes, mine have drawstrings. :)

freshair and trsinc,
well shoot, I thought that's what it was! I got it at lowe's in the garden center and it was on rolls I believe. I had to staple it to a 2x2 and put grommets on the top so I could hang it from the eaves. I put it up about 1pm and take it down and roll it up about 7pm. Kim

tedlin - your garden looks great.

Kim, thats a nice looking shade cover. I would add the folks on the Brugmansia forum to your list of nicest people on GW.

Look no further than this. It's great