I'm looking for a cheap do-it-yourself way to make shade covers for my cooler season veggies. Some of the kits I've seen look easy enough, but are a little steep for my wallet. Has anyone used cheese cloth or other inexpensive fabrics for this? Thanks!
I dont see why it wont work. Some folks put up the criss cross panels that they make trillis out of ..
I have several kinds of shade covers. Concrete reinforcing wire bent into half circle shapes and covered with old galvanized window screening. Left over hardware cloth bent into half circle shapes. These provide adequate shade without anything else. These are my favorite. Some are about 30 years old now. I've used cardboard boxes with the bottoms cut out and covered them with whatever fabric I can find when I need shade right now. Scrap lumber stapled down both sides of a long stretch of chicken wire. You can nail a couple of cross pieces to define the width of the tunnel. Or, just use stakes to hold the shape. This needs some fabric over it or shade cloth. Cheese cloth, nylon netting works but it only lasts for about one season here. You can also build some simple scrap wood frames--topless tables and cover them with anything from cardboard to shade cloth. Haven't tried any of the new row cover materials but I bet they'd be perfect over frames like this.
