What is Garden Shade Cloth?

Garden shade cloth is becoming increasingly popular with gardeners in hot climates due to its wide range of applications and indispensable value during extreme weather patterns. As the United States Department of Agriculture recently recategorized many parts of the country into warmer zones, it’s not surprising that more and more people are using garden shade cloth to manage their summer gardens.

Although it may seem new to you, farmers have used some form of shade cloth for as long as we have grown crops. Hundreds of years ago, farmers used simple woven fabrics like burlap or other natural materials to keep crops protected from extreme sun rays. Now, we use more sophisticated knot-knit polypropylene and aluminum shade cloths, but the benefits remain the same.

Benefits of Garden Shade Cloth

Garden shade cloth does three critical things for your summer garden:

1. It reduces the intensity of the sunlight that hits your crops, which can be beneficial during extreme heat and for heat-sensitive plants. It’s important to note that garden shade cloth does not reduce the hours of sunlight your crops receive, just the intensity of that sunlight. As the sun’s intensity is diminished, you will notice reduced wilting and sunscald in your crops. Commercial pepper growers depend on shade cloth to prevent dreaded sunscald. We recommend shade cloth for all our peppers, including our Organic Sweet Texas Longhorn Pepper Seeds. 
2. It reduces the amount of transpiration that comes from the leaves of the plants. When your plant is not losing excess moisture between waterings, it will grow more abundantly.
3. It also reduces the evaporation of water from your soil and keeps it cooler. This is critical when growing sensitive crops, transplanting seedlings, or trying to extend your growing season.

When we discovered shade cloth being used in commercial growing sectors, we knew we had to get this game-changing fabric into the hands of gardeners. We use garden shade cloth every year because it makes the difference between a bumper crop year or a total crop failure. We know you will see the incredible difference it can make in your garden!