Under the Choko Tree By Nevin Sweeney

Making a Shade Cloth Wicking Bed Sun Cover

The Finished Product

We operate a number of wicking beds in both the back and front yard and find they work pretty well, but even when water is not an issue we find that plants can wilt under the assault of the Western Sydney afternoon sun. The ones in the back yard cop the full effect of said sun and it can cause havoc, particularly by causing burns on leaf crops. Also, during my researches I have discovered that reducing the amount of light a leaf crop gets can make them milder in flavour and texture. So I decided to make a shade cloth cover for my silver beet/celery bed and see how well it worked.

My original plan was to make a rectangular structure with tomato stakes using some steel SHS (Square hollow section) welded together to form corner bracket sort of things. You can make them yourself of buy them commercially, but after some thought,  I realised I could use some 20mm electrical conduit I had put away after I pulled apart the aquaponics set up. I had a leftover piece of 50% shade cloth and after hunting around I found a few saddles to attach the conduit to the wicking beds so I could put it together for nothing.

The framework

I measured up the shade cloth and it was 3 metres long by 1.8 metres wide - enough to go over the top and cover the front, leaving the back open. That was fine because the front faced west meaning that the plants would get some unfiltered morning sun but most of it and especially the afternoon sun would be broken down by the shade cloth. The shade cloth was 3 metres long, so I measure up and cut two lengths of electrical conduit to that length as well.

Connecting the conduit

I screwed in the saddles on the front and back of the wicking bed to secure the ends of the conduit. I then put one end of the conduit into one of the front saddles and curved it over so I could fit the other end into the opposing saddle. It looked pretty good and seemed to work well so I put the back conduit in as well. To stop the loops of conduit from collapsing in under the influence of the shade cloth I cut a straight bit of conduit to the width of the bed (1.2 metres) to use as a ridge pole.

Shadecloth over the top

I fitted the ridge pole by screwing a saddle on each curve of conduit, right at the top, I slid in the ridge pole and then put in another screw at the apex of the saddle to hold the ridge pole in place. To fit the shade cloth I pulled it up over the ridge pole and down each side, then out so that the ends were over the conduit loops. To keep the shade cloth in place I used shade cloth timber fasteners, nailed into the side of the wicking bed, then used cable ties to attach the shade cloth to the electrical conduit along the length of both loops.

Completed

It seemed pretty stable initially but after a while I noticed the conduit slipping through the saddles meaning that the shade cloth was no longer taut, to I pushed the conduit back through and put a screw in to stop the conduit sliding back down.

So far it is working well.

 

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