Garden Sun Shade / Frost Cover

by john pedersen in Living > Gardening

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Garden Sun Shade / Frost Cover

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A relatively easy to construct and under $150 in cost, Sun Shade / Frost Cover for a small garden.

We needed an easy to use (1 or 2 people) garden cover for late Spring frosts or

early Fall frosts for my daughter's garden.

I got the idea for the support from my:

https://www.instructables.com/id/PVC-Trellis/

that I made last year.

Material Needed

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12 - 10 foot long 1/2 inch PVC conduit make sure yours is Sunlight resistant

10 - 3 foot long steel fencing stakes the ones I bought are about 3/8 of an inch in diameter, see picture.

1 - 20 by 25 foot tarp this one was the right size for the garden.

A bag of Tye-wraps the black ones are UV resistant.

A roll of Duct tape

A small sledge hammer.

2 people to help

Installing the Stakes and Conduit.

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Hammer in the stakes about a third of their length. I installed 5 per side.

Join two lengths of conduit together, I taped the joints with duct tape.

Bend the conduit in an arc and slide the ends over the stakes.

My daughter Kristi helps with the installation of the conduit.

Installing the Tarp.

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It was a very windy day the day we constructed the cover, so my daughter Jenni volunteered to help hold the tarp down until we needed it, she also took most of the pictures.

Kristi and I install the tarp along the North side of the garden. The tarp was permanently attached to the North side.

Attaching the Tarp to the End Conduits.

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The tarp was attached to the end conduits with heavy duty Tye-Wraps through the tarp's grommets in shower curtain fashion. We originally used rope but that didn't work out.

Finishing Up.

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We attached the last two joined pieces of conduit along the opposite edge of the tarp, using more Tye-Wraps.

Using this rigid edge of the tarp makes it easier to cover and uncover the garden.

After trying it out we found that it provides welcome shade which will be nice when planting and weeding the garden.

Hopefully it will help extend ours and other gardeners growing seasons.