I came up with a very simple and very cheap moveable shelter that I used to protect some plants from last year’s epic storms and you could use it for shade as well. All I did was take some 1 inch pvc tubing and some 24 inch long pieces of rebar. I’m not sure if it’s called rebar down under - it’s a steel rod that goes inside concrete. I just drove a couple of the rebar stakes into the ground on each side of the plant(s) and then I slid one end of a piece of pvc tubing over the stake, bent the pvc over and slid it over a stake on the opposite side. 2 or more of these form a hoop house/tunnnel of sorts. Then, I put clear plastic over the hoop frame. It would be just as easy with shade cloth. To stiffen it I used some paracord that I attached to a stake and then stretched up and around one piece of pvc (at the apex of the arc) and then to the next piece of tubing, finally terminating at another stake on the opposite side. I also did this on the sides as well; to add overall rigidity. This prevented the hoops from moving much, even in big wind. Next season I’m going to buy a bunch of 4-way pvc connectors that I can use to stiffen the top and sides, provide crossmembers to support any covering and make the system more modular and better; but what I described worked great in the face of a 50 day biblical flood event! Lol.
How this helps
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I have grown S.O.D.K before and they were nice bushy plants so I thought I'd see what happens if I tried topping it.
