Shade House

[Jan]

This corner of the area behind the house used to be a "garden" - looked like someone had dumped a load of soil with a truck, planted a few natives and added an ugly concrete bird bath. A corner full of dead sticks didn't cut it for me so I removed the living plants and relocated them, moved the soil to top up behind the retaining wall (quite a few barrow loads!) and was left with this corner which I had earmarked for a shade house. I spread shale in the area when we did our driveway and debated just what I would build. Checked the internet for ideas, considered building from scratch but as I am time poor these days I found something that I could adapt at the "big shed whose name shall not be mentioned".

Gazebo frame up Shelving in.JPG

They had shelving with mesh shelves on sale, too, and we modified a set of stainless steel laundry tube to fit smaller set of shelves and used the spare shelves from the larges sets to make mesh shelves for the smaller set to replace the chipboard shelves that would not have suited the job. The tubs are great for immersion watering and I use an old fridge shelf over the second tub as my draining area.

Shade cloth Roof.jpg

The roof was a bit tricky - the Gazebo came with a canvas roof so I used it as a pattern to make a shade cloth roof. (I sew - used 6lb fishing line as thread that would stand the elements)

Shade house roman blind door.JPG

The side walls were shade cloth hemmed top and bottom and threaded in metal stripping with holes in in to screw the walls to the uprights. I made a Roman blind door out of matching shade cloth to keep the wildlife ('roos) out. A table and chairs on the shale to contemplate and tinker completed the job. I moved the trees from their temporary home and am enjoying it. I also installed a 3 foot fish tank on an east facing shelf the gravel in the bottom (tank drains) keeps it moist in the tank and is a great place for my minis, accent plants and cuttings.

Didn't cost a bomb and was good time use. Very happy with the tidy result.

Jan.

[peterb]

Well done Jan, certainly looks good and very practical
peterb

[Paul W]

Hi Jan
Bloody good job,you are welcome at my house anytime but bring the sewing machine.
No seriously it looks good and very practical.

[Mojo Moyogi]

Hi Jan, nice job there. What percentage shade is the shadecloth that you used?

Cheers,
Mojo

[Jan]

What percentage shade is the shadecloth that you used?

50% or 75%, can't be sure now. I was looking for 50% but can't remember if I managed to get it. Still gets heaps of light and things don't get that "leggy" go to them that they get with too much shade. Our summer sun on the Tablelands can be very harsh, we get STRONG winds on the top of the ridge (price of the view) and the frosts are corkers, too, so I was after something to moderate those extremes. The plants are responding well, putting on growth but with short spacing between leaf junctions on things like elms and bottlebrush.

The wildlife like it, too; blue wrens nested in my lemon grass (potted on a shelf in the shade house) and the chicks are about to leave the nest. Really protected place for them, safe from the big birds and the gap between the lower and upper sections of the roof seems made to order for them. Hope they have been paying their rent by working on the bug population.

Jan.