In the scorching heat, it can be difficult to grow your own food.

DIY garden shade solutions can help you develop sensible and affordable strategies to deal with the heat. They can help you develop more abundant growing areas than you might otherwise have been able to make.

In this post, we will briefly discuss some ways to create garden shade. First of all, we’ll look at natural, planting solutions. Then we’ll take a look at some man-made structures you could create using sustainable materials that might be readily available where you live. We’ll show you how thinking about shade cast in your garden can help you beat the heat.

Natural Garden Shade

The first and perhaps most obvious way to create shade in your garden is to plant a tree. A shade tree can make a big difference – but it is important to choose the right one for your location. And it is also important to think carefully about where exactly a new tree or trees should be planted in your space. Make sure you understand where sunlight falls in your garden, and when. And think about where and when the shade from a tree will be most beneficial.

Even in the smallest garden, a single tree in a container could provide shade from some other container plants. Trees can also be trained to create a fence or boundary that could cast shade at a key time of day.

Of course, trees can also be used on a wider scale. Forest gardening strategies allow for layered planting. Forming guilds beneath fruit trees or other beneficial trees can help you make the most of your garden. The top layer can form a canopy to shade and protect crops and other plants grown below.

But trees are not the only plants that can help provide shade in a garden. Fruiting canes, fruit bushes and shrubs, perennials, and even taller annual crops can be used to improve environmental conditions by creating some shade for plants grown close by.

DIY Garden Shade Structures

In certain circumstances, you may find it difficult to create shade using just plants. But even if you have to build new structures to provide garden shade, it does not need to cost a fortune.

A tunnel structure or greenhouse structure can be covered with shade netting or other reclaimed fabrics to make a place where you can sow and pot up plants. Old bedding or other reclaimed materials can also simply be strung over bendable branches, stakes or canes to protect and shade individual plants.

You could also create your own vertical structures to cast shade over certain parts of your garden at certain times of the day. For example, you could use natural branches to make a wattle fence, or build a fence from reclaimed wood… or any number of other reclaimed materials.

You could create a wall of cob or adobe, natural rocks from your property, or even build an earth bag or rammed earth tire wall… the options are almost endless. And the thermal mass of such structures won’t just provide shade but could also potentially keep temperatures more stable over time.

Extreme heat can definitely be a challenge. But with careful garden design, through planting and the structures we choose to place, we can overcome even the most intense environmental challenges.

Mulch

Using mulch to cover your soil surface is one of the best ways to protect your soil from baking and drying out in the harsh sun. Living in the Sunshine Coast sub tropical growing region means we can have super fast growth, although the downside is that sun can get harsh and if we are not careful we can damage our top soil and reduce our soil life. Try using hay, straw or sugar cane fines as a mulch cover approximately 5cm thick, you could use rotting leaves or even a thick layer of compost. We also use wood chips as mulch for pathways and fruit tree gardens.

When you have happy soil, (meaning its not dry, crusty or powdery) which you will more likely have if you are using mulch then your plants will be happier and healthier.