I watched the Umbrella Video and noticed it didn't show the block of shade cast. So it probably works only at high noon in midsummer and if it's positioned right over the chair or chaise. Not very useful. And when you add in the wind issue (our good 8 ft. umbrella goes over, heavy stand and all, when a good gust comes along), it's not worth the price. I looked at those RV awnings that run down the length of the trailer and had one installed over my deck along the house wall. Pulls out 8 ft. and it's 16 ft. long and very sturdy and stable (more stable than the pullout awnings made for house decks -- go online and look up "RV awnings"). Easier to move your chair to its shade than to crank down the wheels on the umbrellamobile and drag it around. Carol

Trudi, UPDATE: You said, "If tomatoes reseed in your zone 8 garden then you can WS them." I asked an LSU Ag Center horticulturalist & apparently they don't reseed here. Or, he says that's not the way we grow tomatoes here. He says that we don't sit around & wait to see what has come up from last year. We sow inside about Feb 1, then 8 weeks later or around April 1, transplant outside. So I guess that he's saying tomatoes don't reseed in our area - that's the best I could get. I've gotten a package of 100 seeds of Small Fry from Willhite Seed in Texas, thinking that I could try WS with some of the seeds & see. In your WS faq you say to wait until the deciduous trees in my neighborhood have lost all their leaves & they have, just a few scattered leaves left for the wind to blow off. In general I always think that winter is pretty much over in my area by Feb 14 & there are only a few freezes after that. I'd like to WS cilantro & my Small Fry tomatoes. Can I start both Dec 21? It's good to read about your new puppy Emily, even if she did shred the seed pack. Thanks!! River (z8b, heat zone 9, Central Louisiana - my profile has gotten messed up as other peopleâÂÂs have, I can't save my profile if I try to fix it & I've written GW)

Thanks all. I was really hoping for some real life experiences on the suggestions though, as I did a dearch but it didn't really help much (except for maybe what NOT to buy). busybee, I looked up frontgate and they did indeed have a rectangular one, for 800.00! Lil much for me, but thank you anyway! :) From past reviews on PB stuff, I will not purchase from them. Love their stuff as far as it's mostly pretty attractive, but they don't get great reviews. justterrilyn, I did run across that umbrella in searching, but the material sounds thin and I think (if I am remembering correctly) that was a complaint of some. Again, thanks for trying.

That looks really awkward to me. I would worry it would easily blow over. It you need that much shade I would see about an awning or sail shade. Or even two umbrella over that option.