We had a rather productive day in the garden yesterday. Woke to lots of rain and a brainwave I'd had overnight regarding my potted vegies and the relentless summer sun. I thought "let's put up some shade-cloth across the end of the patio to protect my tomatoes in particular but all the pot-plants there". Dad quickly offered to pay for it, he's bought me a rain-guage too, so off to Bunnings for a 5m x 1.83m sheet of shade-cloth which will reduce the UV rays by about 50%.
As we're renting our home we can't make any structural changes so we stitched the cloth to two of the patio posts with a tie in the very middle. I used some very sturdy cotton thread that once belonged to my Nana, given to me by Auntie Jessie years ago!
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| from the outside |
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| from the inside |
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| outside looking in The patio felt cooler immediately and we gained a little privacy as the garden is very open to the street. |
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| Free potatoes...the teaspoon is in there for scale. Joe right away requested steamed potatoes with butter and salt lol |
After sweeping and rearranging pots and furniture to suit the new feature in went to check vegetable bed next to the little gate you can see below. Thrilled to see that my 4 potato plants had turned yellow I carefully pulled them and poked around in the soil for the above! 1.6kgs of fresh new potatoes from 3 old sprouted potatoes that I'd planted several months ago. They will be delicious and that's one less thing on my shopping list this week. Next I washed the big table and my little ornaments....
....then sat down to take all the seed pods off the rocket plants that had literally "gone to seed". There are so many seeds that that's another thing I won't have to buy any-time soon.
I do hope you too had a satisfying weekend and wish you all a productive and happy week.
Love from Sue.
xx
Spuds look great they're my favourite. You patio looks very inviting. TFS
ReplyDeleteGreat idea of yours Sue to put up some shade cloth, the plants will love it, and so will you! It will be so much cooler under there. I have been trying to convince hubby to put some up here to protect the plants from the hot north winds, but he thinks his list of jobs is getting way too long...poor fella.
ReplyDeleteWell done with the potatoes, I am hoping mine are successful this year too.
You'll find a big difference with the shade cloth Sue. Years ago Tony made a frame and stapled shade cloth on for our bedroom window which faces due west. The difference was immediate and it created a little breezeway.
ReplyDeleteIt looks very nice and inviting! just the kind you want to sit and have your morning tea in :)
ReplyDeleteWhat an awesome idea to pop up the shade cloth. Often renting means it can be hard to come up with solutions to these problems but well done! Love your back patio and I am very impressed at your spuds :) Looking great there Sue, Regards, Ruth x
ReplyDeleteLooks awesome Sue... I do miss aspects of WA but no me vege getting scorched.
ReplyDeleteThank you all My Lovelies for your comments. We sat outside this afternoon and noticed it was less windy than usual and another bonus is that it has stopped the birds from flying through at lightspeed which was dangerous and oft-times messy!
ReplyDeletexxxx
O this is precisely what I needed to see! I was thinking about doing something similar to our back patio which faces west. I had a hard time visualizing it and had been procrastinating doing it because I was a bit worried about how to stitch shade cloth. Now that I've seen how you've done it, I'm itching to do the same!
ReplyDeleteHi Lilian...it's taking quite a beating with the wind so please make sure you stitch it very well.
ReplyDeletexx