If you can get 1/2 inch PVC tubing in 20 foot lengths, you can make a hoop over a 4 foot wide bed that's roughly eight feet high in the center. Shove four rods of rebar thin enough to go inside the tubing and long enough to get a firm hammering into the ground with a foot or so sticking up. A couple of bent nails or electrical conduit 2-hole clamps can help with steadiness by "attaching" the rebar to raised bed sides if necessary. Slide the tubing down over the rebar. Don't worry about roots. You can put up hoops in parallel like a Conestoga wagon or cross them in an X. You can also put up plastic tubing "poles", which means straight sections that don't hoop back down; they will be more flexible. How's your wind, and are you comfortable putting large sails into the wind? I was given a hot tip for edged and grommeted shade cloth: Harbor Freight. They also have scads of cheap clamps or you could use those huge binder clips! Also remember, you don't have to shade all the plants if some are in the shade of others. Here is a link that might be useful: Harbor Freight

I thought I responded a couple days ago -I guess it's gone to cyber space. Hurricane CHarley knocked down 5 huge trees on my property, there was no damage to our house or the houses next door so I considered that a warning and now have no tall trees at all. We are 11 ft above sea level and a block from a tidal canal so I am somewhat concerned about flooding although we've never had any flooding the 29 years we've been in this house. If we have a hurricane warning I can drop the shade and put the orchids on the pea gravel that's there and maybe just cover them with the shade fabric. If we have flooding,I'll have bigger concerns than my orchids. I'm going to contact the sprinkler guy and find out how realistic it would be to run a pipe to the area and put in a sprinkler head. We are allowed to use sprinkler water twice a week for four hours so it would be a nice back up water plan.

You guys are sooooo crazy!! I can always depend on you for a good laugh as well as good information. I empathize with all the aching body parts!! It is amazing that when we are doing the things that we love, they don't ache so much, until much later! As for the acronyms, you should be in the Insurance Business, Senior market!! The government has the market cornered on acronyms, it's like learning a new foreign language every few months! DGMS Dianne

Let me bump this old thread to say that I tried to make some diy shade paint by using a diluted interior latex paint, mixed at about 5:1. I applied it with a pump sprayer six months ago to my double layer of 6-mil poly. The problem is that now the paint doesn't want to come off. I had thought that a pressure washer would easily take it off, at the risk of being too strong. But I was completely wrong. Not only does the power washer not remove any paint, the poly itself is oblivious to it. I use the same machine to strip wooden decks and siding. I even tried to cut through the poly with it, and it doesn't even make a mark. It seems like it relates to the poly not being a firm surface; the movement takes away the leverage of the pressured water spray. Undiluted Simple Green and a *lot* of work with a typical plastic kitchen scrub brush eventually took off the paint. If the brush has scratched the poly, I can't see it. It took me four hours of scrubbing to clean just one end wall of a 14' wide high tunnel. If I ever try shade paint again, I will spend the money for the Kool Ray AND paint a small test area only, let it sit for a year, and see how easy it is to remove.