raenborn, I have been in the greenhouse industry for over 27 years and I have never seen a structure with removable panels for the summer. I am sure it would be easy to adapt it for the shade cloth. Sorry, but looks like you may just have to design one yourself. Tammy

It’s hard to believe that removing glass panels would be less effort than pulling down roller blinds and opening vents. Both can be automated to function by themselves according to temperature.

On the other hand the dimensions are so small one of those plastic cupboard like affairs would do the job and they can be given a mesh cover for summer. Or just roll up the sides for ventilation.

Thank you both. I'll get to work on my design... :)

A little advice based on my own experience to think about raenborn. I built a cold frame many years ago using patio door panels. I put cold crop plants in it and the next day with the a forecast of low 40's I left it closed and when I got home my plants were toast. A digital temperature gauge able to record temp highs and lows showed the high hit 143 degrees. I could not maintain a safe temperature from one day to the next and would even have massive temperature swings going from clouds to sun in minutes.

If you build something with glass of that size for the winter you will lose without an automated ventilation system and may as well call it a solar oven.

I installed a dryer vent flap in reverse at one end, and a 40 cfm bathroom exhaust fan on the other side controlled by a digital temperature controller to make it work and used it for many years after that.

I'm in zone 4b and even in the low 40's you can see what it happened, I can imagine the challenge one would have living in zone 7.

Thanks, Kevin. You are right to point out that I should be concerned about things getting baked in the winter too. Our Bay Area "winters" now seem to be a random mix of traditional cool damp days and days that are 70+ degrees, alternating even within a week. My current thinking is that I might try and build something covered only with shade cloth - enough to keep the squirrels from digging things up, and to protect from the hottest days year round - and to accept that I'll still have to start seeds in the house in the winter. I miss living in a four-season climate!