Dave, do you have a sprinkler system? Grass is looking pretty nice (unless that is an older pic).

Nice screen by the way.

Silver lining: The days are now getting shorter (and my conifers are getting less direct sunlight) since we have passed the solstice. At least, that's what I keep telling myself...

That's a nice big shade structure. Shading the afternoon sun off my new Skylands was not enough and my poor tree got pretty burnt. =( I've since added to my shade fortress. Luckily my tree is small enough to provide shade directly overhead. Dave I hope your leader stays burn free.

I have run out shade cloth that my mother-in-law gave me and I need to find some more to save the rest of my burning babies. What is the material that you are using Dave?

The only gold conifers I have that are not burning at all in this heat and full sun are Metasequoia glyptostroboides 'Ogon' and surprisingly my first year in the ground Picea abies 'Summer Daze'. I would have thought for sure that a young gold plant without established roots would burn in full sun. Not sure if I'm just lucky but this ones been a bullet proof little guy for me.

I may have to stay away from buying gold conifers if we keep getting weather like this every year.

Oops, that reminds me...I need to set up some screens!!! My already-stressed 'Pimoko' is a goner, but my P. abies 'Pumila' is really starting to take a beating. My Montgomery Spruce looks remarkably good, though.

I am not happy that you all are struggling with your precious conifers but I am glad I am not the only one, that the heat is just going to take it's toll.

Garen, I am going to use landscape fabric to screen mine, but the one that's more fabric-y and not as much hole-y if you know what I mean. I think it will allow more sun through, but not too much.

I would not use landscape fabric. To restrictive for good air circulation.

You can buy the 60/40 shade cloth at your local nursery.

Dave

I sure hope you don't suffer the losses of last year Dave. We are in drought and haven't had any significant rain in 2 1/2 months. Lots of plant loss here. They are saying 1 inch of rain this weekend, but I've heard it before. Good luck.
Cher

Heard, on the landscape fabric. I think I am going to do overhead-only screening, so I think it will be alright. We are up on a knoll so our breezes come from everywhere. :o/

hey dave ....

i would have a hard time looking at that screening.. all summer long.. it goes w/o saying.. that is why mine.. looks like it does.. lol ...

the SHADE CLOTH can be ordered from amleo.com [among others i am sure] ... should you not have a local nursery.. i would never find something like that out here in the country ... one would also discuss with them ... the thingees to attach it to the poles ...

when i was doing a project.. their salesman.. spent a good amount of time with me on the phone .. and i had the stuff 2 days later ... shade cloth comes in varying densities ... 60/40 ... 50/50 ... 45/55 .. whatever the numbers might be.. i would suggest.. for this application.. its all the same ... but would defer to anyone with actual experience .. most likely.. and correct me dave.. this is what your nursery had in stock ... rather than stock of all variations ...

below is my project.. for my little white skinned freckle faced redhead ... want odds on whether he actually will sit under the cloth???? its not directly applicable to this situation.. but would be a great thing.. if you had 100 pots of stuff ... to keep pots out of the sun .. or to grow hosta w/o trees ... or to shade a patio on a new construction home ... snow is not a problem.. nor ice ...

its completely unbelievable.. standing on sand.. in sun.. at 100 degrees ... it will feel 30 degrees cooler with that shade .. especially with a slight breeze ... i would not have believed it.. w/o the experience .. and no.. i dont recall what % shade mine was ..

ken
{{gwi:250981}}

You can also order shade cloth online from home depot. They'll send it out with free shipping.
A 6 x 20 ft. strip goes for $32, and should be enough to shade many small plants.

Alex

Here is a link that might be useful: Shade cloth at HomeDepot.com

link i didnt have time to get to earlier..

ken

Here is a link that might be useful: link

I went cheap, cheap, cheap and got landscape fabric. I only screened the southwest exposure so air circulation wasn't an issue for me. 50' on sale for $8.

Sprinkler system, no?