How to hang shade cloth in the garden: 101

Let’s hang my shade cloths in my garden together!
In this video I go over the different options you have for shade cloth materials, posts and design options as well as all of my best practices that I’ve learned over the years through trial and error!

Hanging shade cloth has been my secret to extending my growing season and producing loads of food and herbs through our relentless hot summers here in Texas!

Check out my other shade cloth video from the past few seasons here: https://youtu.be/-5fM_r0E9VM

Shade Cloth Supplies:
https://www.amazon.com/shop/fromthegarden/list/5LPH476HQTX9?ref_=cm_sw_r_apann_aipsflist_GV5JDKE7FDRG20ZAE22E&language=en-US

8′ T post sourcing:
Tractor Supply-https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/franklin-industries-studded-t-post-8-ft125-lb-per-foot-3609146?store=488&cid=Google-Shopping&utm_medium=Google&utm_source=Shopping&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=20382437754&gbraid=0AAAAADnTm23Rx9I_rmmD-TfT1lvkQuZYQ&gclid=Cj0KCQjwjJrCBhCXARIsAI5x66WHM3mxbFn0UqrE8cwVFOaZHbZxXQIU1mSOrd0ZyAPBnz6lXxWo5gEaAji1EALw_wcB
Home Depot-https://www.homedepot.com/pep/Everbilt-1-3-4-in-x-3-1-2-in-x-8-ft-Green-Steel-Fence-T-Post-with-Anchor-Plate-901180EB/205960896?g_store=6585&source=shoppingads&locale=en-US&pla&mtc=SHOPPING-BF-APT-GGL-Multi-Multi-NA-NA-NA-PLALIA–PRT-NA-NA-NBR-NA-PRO-NEW-All_Pros_PRT&cm_mmc=SHOPPING-BF-APT-GGL-Multi-Multi-NA-NA-NA-PLALIA–PRT-NA-NA-NBR-NA-PRO-NEW-All_Pros_PRT-20987292452-158752568055-1458551821861&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=20987292452&gbraid=0AAAAADq61Ue102EGrp60WscB_VY5e552J&gclid=Cj0KCQjwjJrCBhCXARIsAI5x66XxguIHeHrf54d3cWqAlCzAKfQV2jt-BXcnP102bhfPvxuXg5z2Ij0aAvpWEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds
#shadecloth #shadecloths #shade #gardentips #southerngarden #fromthegarden #texas #texasgarden #texasgardening #gardening #growyourownfood #gardendiy #diy #tpost #garden #zone9a #zone9garden

hi guys it’s Vanessa coming to you from the garden just northwest of Austin Texas in zone 9b in the suburbs And today I’m going to show you how I installed my shade cloths in my garden And I’m going to go over all of my best practices when it comes to setting up shade cloth choosing the right material what a tost versus aost is how we drive those post into the ground and how to set up shade cloth when you don’t want to put a post into the ground But before we get into the construction of it all I want to go over why it’s important to actually put up shade cloth over the hottest months in southern states when it comes to gardening Not everything in your garden may need shade cloth but a lot of things like tomatoes peppers eggplants cucumbers will do quite a bit better when they get a little bit of relief from the extreme sun and heat that we get starting usually late May going into June Both frost cloth and shade cloth can help extend your growing season depending on your climate Although Texas has a long growing season we tend to get a very short-lived spring and then a very long extended extreme period of heat throughout the summertime This can cut your vegetable growing season down significantly if you don’t utilize tools to give relief to your plants once extreme temps set in And sometimes giving your plants just an extra month can really increase your yields in the garden Shade cloth can also help reduce plant stress This can actually help reduce the pest pressure in your garden Although in Texas in the summertime pests are very prevalent but a healthy plant can withstand whatever is coming its way quite a bit better And some sucking pests like aphids and spidermitites will go after stressed plants more so than healthy plants And my favorite perk to having shade cloth over the garden is it feels really nice for me to be outside And the more I can actually be hands-on walking through the garden observing and handling things the better outcome I will have no matter what Now I’m typically hanging my shade cloths up when we hit temps in the mid to upper 90s or at least consistently really really hot and sunny in the ‘9s And that usually happens in late May going into June And we usually do not get below that until late September going into October So in September I start looking really closely at those 2 week average forecasts just to see are the nighttime temps dipping just a little bit because that’s an indication that daytime temps will start to come down And even by then depending on what I have growing in the fall garden or what I’m getting ready to transplant may leave my shade cloth up a little bit longer just to give my transplants a really easy transition going into the last heat of the summer and then once the days start to get shorter and a little bit cooler going into the fall Now as far as shade cloth material goes I like to use a 40% shade cloth that I get off of Amazon and it has metal grommets on the side which allow me to connect it easier to different structures using paracord or carabiners and this just helps it from tearing but it’s definitely not the highest quality shade cloth you can get So if you have a more permanent garden area that you are ready to just fully have it designed ready for the winter and ready for the summer you can upgrade your shade cloth to something called illuminette Illuminette is basically a really really sturdy type of shade cloth that can also double as a hail shield which probably would have been very helpful for some of our gardens here in Texas this year because the storms and hail and tornadoes have been insane But if pricing for the Amazon shade cloth is here Illuminette is here So I haven’t pulled the trigger yet but it’s definitely something to look into if you’re ready to make that jump Now if the shade cloths on Amazon are not something you want to use you can use an old bed sheet or something that you thrifted that is light in color and you can add grommets to it like this $5 grommet making kit from Harbor Freight This literally will hammer into most fabrics including the thickness of a tarp And you can add grommets along the edges of any cloth that you can find even burlap and then hang this over any structure And this is a great way to make things out of what you have With bed sheets you may not have rain coming through as easily and it may catch the wind a little bit more So just keep that in mind when you’re doing bed sheets if you opt for that option on shade cloth I redesigned my raised bed garden about 8 months ago and so it really changes the way I can hang up shade cloths So it took a little bit of getting creative to figure out how I actually wanted to do this And in today’s video I’m going to show you how my boyfriend lovingly helped me install some 8ft Tposts around the outer edges of my raised beds and on the edges of some of my trelluses And that way I had multiple touch points for me to hang multiple smaller shade cloths instead of one larger one When it comes to the size of shade cloth it’s important to know that the bigger the cloth the bigger the wind sail and the more tension you’ll need to stabilize all of it So this year I opted for multiple smaller shade cloths throughout the garden which gave me a nice dappled shade And we got insane storms last night and they’re perfectly fine We’re talking 80 mph winds in the last month and a half And these shade cloths have not faltered at all If you’re deciding to drive any type of post into the ground if you’re doing a little over 6 to 8 in into the earth you probably want to call 811 and at least have them come mark your lines It’s a free service in most areas of the United States And if you don’t have an 811 line you can call your municipal office and ask them for what direction you should be going to try and get that information Now most municipal lines are actually lower like 12 to 18 in in the ground six to eight inches you may run into irrigation lines or some cable lines So just keep that in mind If you know what cable providers have been serviced in your area for at least the last decade you can reach out to them and see if they can tell you if any cables are running because we had to do that at a previous garden and we knew that there was a cable running diagonally through the ground and as long as we did not go more than 8 in we should be okay And then we had 811 come out and mark all of the gas lines and things like that to make sure we weren’t going to actually hit anything But you don’t have to drive posts in the ground in order to hold up shade cloth Consider if you have wooden raised beds just taking fence pickets and drilling them into the corners And then you can attach your shade cloth over that You can take hula hoops and cut them in half and have a low arch structure over lower growing plants and you can attach shade cloth or sheets over that using clips or greenhouse clips Or you can use something like what I did in this bed which was using leftover PVC pieces and attaching some ihooks to my fence popping on some shade cloth that I had left over and waiting down one end of the shade cloth with another PVC piece to keep it heavier so I can just drape it right over here and get some coverage when I want and move it back when I want to take a look at the bed So the posts I’m using today are called tea posts and that’s because they make an actual tea When you look at the top of the post they are much sturdier than a U post which makes a U and is a lot easier to bend So when it comes to high winds and a lot of tension from a shade cloth being put on the top of that post or pole you want to make sure it’s sturdy enough to withstand what is coming its way And I find that upost can be a little too weak for this if you go above the 4t high mark So if you have some uposts that you have access to or you already have on hand that’s okay to use If you’re keeping it 4 ft or below but above that it tends to bend the post if you have them connected These are not the only two posts you could use to hang up your shade cloth but these are the two that are easiest to find And I find my tost for the best price at Tractor Supply But if you don’t have a Tractor Supply near you Home Depot has the largest variety of sizes of Tposts I’m starting with some smaller 6.6x 10 ft shade cloths but I’ll show you how I connect them just using carabiners and paracord from Harbor Freight I’m going to take my shade cloth out of the pack and show you how we installed the 8ft Tpost in my garden around the edges So we started with 8ft Tpost and then marked where we wanted to put them And um I just did consulting but we’re using a tost driver which is the tool that’s in my boyfriend’s hand And I cut out some of the banging but it was quite a bit of him having to slam it down to get it into the ground So I’m going to show you a closeup of what it looks like for how many times we have to hit it to get it to go into the earth enough for it to be sturdy Okay this is why I talked about marking the lines from 811 coming out Now my boyfriend is 6’4 and pretty strong So this seems easy on camera Um but it would be difficult if you were any shorter than that So I have actually done this at the top of a ladder on a 10-ft tost So it is doable Now to connect the shade cloth I’m sure there’s some type of bracket that exists that someone’s going to put in the comments But I have had no issues with just using paracord which is just like a sturdy cordage and making basically a fully tied around the actual pole and then making a loop that’s also tied and then I put a carabiner onto that and tie the first corner of my shade cloth to that carabiner Now sometimes when I’m setting these up at first I don’t give enough slack and then I end up having to retie like 30 times So just do yourself a favor and measure first Don’t eyeball it like I did And then give yourself some slack So you can always go and tighten more It’s really frustrating if you cut too much of it Now I’m taking the other end of the cordage And I thought I was going to attach it to this Tost that I have on the left side of the arch but I decided to cross over and go to the other Tpost on the right side of the arch I felt like doing a crisscross pattern and running the cordage through the trellis would actually give me a little bit more stability This trellis is actually attached to four smaller posts that are in the ground So it’s not going anywhere And this is where I remember to tell you guys hey make sure to leave some slack so that you can tighten everything once you get all four points of your shade cloth attached to the pulse So this is what it looks like There’s a lot of slack on it And then this is a lot easier when you don’t have stuff already in the way or you have a second person helping you Um and then this type of shade cloth does like to get stuck on trelluses and rip So just be careful with that And then I just repeat the same process on this end All right we’re connected Now we need to tighten So my goal was to attach with carabiners the long side of this one shade cloth to my other trellis And my garden design is kind of a rectangle So the shorter end is the end I’m standing on right now And the longer ends were the ends that I just connected to And this was going to work And then I realized ah this grommet is too far away I was hoping there’d be a grommet like right there so I could just clip it But it’s like over here and over here So we’re just going to run cordage to two carabiners And the reason I’m using carabiners so I could take this down pretty quickly if there were to be a really bad storm So instead of using two carabiners I’m just taking one piece of paracord running it through the trellis over to the other grommet And then I’m going to just use my carabiner to pull tightly on that paracord and clip it Now it would be fine just like this but the tighter the better And so I just moved that carabiner one more section on this trellis to where it was nice and tight And it looks a little funky but it totally works this way Now this is after I installed all of the little bitty shade cloths that I put I have some beds along the fence So I actually have some brackets from when I used to have a shade cloth in back here So that’s running from the fence and I’m utilizing that same corner post So it’s got attention from that way and attention from that way This is one of those shade cloths you saw me put up in the video These are smaller shade cloths that I ordered after the fact to actually cover this area that I wasn’t sure if I was going to cover And then I have the two medium shade cloths And then I got a smaller shade cloth to go down the middle between them And you can see it’s already snagged on the trellis So that’s one thing you have to be careful with You can totally cover your trellis with a pool noodle on the edges and that will help with that But this design I think looks pretty nice and it doesn’t catch wind very well Everything is really nice and tight without too much stress on the poles and it’s working really well I hope this video has been helpful to give you the confidence to figure out a way to hang shade cloth in your summer garden this year And remember to get creative and use the resources around you You can always improve upon what you have later down the road and you will learn a lot in the process and your plants will thank you for your continued support in these difficult times If you’re wondering what you can still plant right now in the southern states specifically in Texas in June go check out my latest video that was uploaded last week And remember if you never grow you’ll never know