Shade cloth or netting works great as well does old window screens or 3 mil plastic as long as its not clear!

Organicislandfarmer - thanks for the tips. On other websites I read that screens work great. We never put the screen back in our screen door so maybe I will take it outside to protect my celery.

The Home Depot prices for shade netting were just too much for me. I decided to try my luck at a thrift store. I found a type of "netting" that is definitely meant for indoor use. My husband and I don't know what it is exactly, so I just took a picture of it. You can click on the linke below to see it.

I have the netting over the top of my lettuce. I was seeing how wide it was to figure out if I should cut the material, or just string it up in a way that allows me to block the sun. We're going for the stringing up option.

Here is a link that might be useful: Thrifty Netting

Hi Veggiefaery! Too late for this year, but you should look for a long-standing or slow to bolt variety for next year. We are in the same area and I was just looking at the Spinach yesterday and it looks great, growing in full sun. I always plant Tyee, Bloomsdale, America, one of those, and I pick well into July. For temporary shading during this hot spell they're predicting, why not try something really economical, old bed sheets, just like you would use to cover for frost. Doesn't have to be pretty, just shade the plants.

Steve

You will always have this problem to deal with in the Spring. Usually the best time to plant cool weather vegetables are in the Fall. Basically, you want them to mature in the cool weather instead of the opposite that you get in the Spring. Work backwards from your first frost date in the Fall so that your plants mature right before it tends to frost. This way you will get better yields and not have the expense. I did a blog post on this issue recently if you are interested.

Here is a link that might be useful: My blog post