Creating shade

[mlwdad]

I am planning to expand my hosta collection and acreage but I need more shade. so I have a couple of questions

How effective are verticle structures (walls and screens) in providing shade for hostas
If you use shade cloth, what percent shade. I found a reference that suggested 50%

Thanks

Lester

[Chris_W]

Hi Lester!

On our shade houses we use a 60% shade fabric and it lets in quite a bit of light. The blues green up pretty quickly and some plants really don't look that great under it by the end of the year. But overall it isn't bad, though I think 50% might not be enough.

About a fence/screen, if you are shading out hot afternoon/evening sun then it would help, but again, might not be enough to keep them looking good all season.

There are some posts in the hosta forum from Olga Petryszyn's place, and she has shade fabric draped over her hostas. Not all that aesthetic, but I'm sure it works. Then you could always put up a pergola like we did, but that is pretty expensive if you are covering a large area.

Here is a link to Olga's place: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=49223

By the way, I'll move this thread to the hosta forum as more people will see it there.

Good luck, and nice to see you on the forums

Chris

[doublemom2]

I was in the same position years ago, so for my birthday one year we built a 24-foot pergola to create more shade. We did a lath top instead of the larger, more common beams that are spread out about 12'. We planted it up with a grape vine, akebia, clematis, and climbing hydrangea, and now it's a perfect shady spot for a lot of hostas and other shade plants. If you're into building things yourself, this would be a great idea, and you could make it as long or short as you like.


Andi

[jgh]

We talk about this every now and then, so there are some good old posts for you to peruse. If you look up at the right corner you will see the search functions, including "Advanced Search" Click on Advanced Search, seach for Shade Shelter in the Hosta Forum... you'll get comments on shade cloth percentages and some pictures of shade shelters...