Well, I got my shade structure built, using 3/4″ PVC pipe and a 50% shade cloth.  The instructions I found for the structure said not to glue the pieces together, but after a couple of mildly windy days, I found I HAD to at least glue the corner joints, otherwise it kept popping open and sagging.

I tied down the shade cloth with rope to stakes pounded into the ground which are also holding the bottom of the structure to the ground as well (tied with thin steel cable).  I’m hoping it will hold up to our monsoon weather.  We had some stronger winds yesterday, and it did fine then.  We’ll see how it manages thorughout the rest of the season.

We’ve been eating a few peas here and there, but so far that is the only plant that has produced anything edible as of yet, and even then, only 2-6 pods at a time, so not enough for a meal. LOL  The corn is at least 2 ft tall so far and were a little unstable due to the soil compressing down from 5-6″ to more like 3.5-4″, so I mixed and added some more soil the other evening until the level was at the top of the raised bed.  Once that settles I’ll add more again to the top so the corn has at least 7″ of soil to support the stalks, and I still need to set up some nylon grid net horizontally to assist with supporting the stalks when they’re taller.  I’ll have to do that this weekend I think so it’s installed well before we leave for vacation next month.

There are a couple of tomatoes that look like they’re contemplating turning red (finally), but only just as they’re still quite green.  But the plants themselves have gone crazy in growth and rival only the corn in height so far.   Well, except one stalk of peas that’s climbing the trellis and is probably about three feet tall, but that’s only one vine.

One of my cucumber plants flowered, we’ll have to see if it sprouts anything, and the watermelon leaves are finally coming in but the plants are still fairly short.  We had a few more strawberry plants produce a flower so hopefully we’ll see a few more of those soon.  The carrots are growing (probably about 4″ tall) but not yet ready for harvesting.  We pulled one the other day and it was less than 1/4″ thick and just barely tinted orange, couldn’t even be considered “baby” carrot yet.

We have a couple of jalepeno peppers  growing, and those plants are still fairly short, too.  The green onions and chives are slowly growing, but those are probably going to be the slowest of all the plants.

I’d still like to try my hand with sweet potatoes, I’ll need to get some more wood to raise their section up a foot and mix some more soil as well as order the smallest amount of sweet potato starters I can possibly get.  I can’t use the sweet potatoes in stores as those are the spreading ground vines and I need the compact bush type so they stay within their section.

I’m hoping we’ll get a tomato soon, I’m not sure why they’re taking so long to redden unless it’s the excessive heat.. I’ll have to look into that.

So here’s the pickle we’re in; our summers here regularly surpass 110 degrees, but I’d say we probably average around 108 or so until September at best.  We’re often running our air conditioning well into October, when suddenly the weather will snap and for a time we’ll need neither a/c nor heat.

But the problem for my Square Foot Garden is going to be the blistering summer sun.  Vegetable plants like a lot of sun, but to be frank, they will roast here.  I think I’d like to save the veggie roasting for when we’re about to eat them, thanks!  If we’re not careful I half expect to find popcorn laying about the yard and the ears of our corn bare to the cobs! LOL

So, we will need to build some sort of shade structure to protect our garden.  We currently have only two, 4’x4′ boxes, and they are arranged about three feet apart, in a north/south direction.

At first I thought, build one big rectangular shade; not only would it shade the veggies, but it would shade us as we go about our business of tending and harvesting in the garden.I was envisioning something about seven to eight feet wide, and about twelve to fifteen feet long.  However, a couple of factors are putting a dent in that idea.

One, we get some awful winds here sometimes – like last night… currently we have tarps covering the soil in the raised beds until we get stuff planted, and we were constantly checking on them and adding river rock to hold the tarps down.  So, the bigger the structure, the more damage there could potentially be if it were to fly away in a wind storm.  I picture it landing in a neighbor’s yard, in pieces.

Two, costs.  So far, to get a large piece of shade cloth to cover both the gardens and provide a little extra shade on the sides, is going to cost right around $100 – JUST for the cloth (because it would have to be a custom size).  Ack!

So now I’m wondering if I should just go with an arched design, specifically sized for each bed rather than encompassing both.  But on the flip side of that, it would not provide any shade for US, so working out in the garden would be even worse than if it were shaded.

It’s not going to be a permanent structure (that is, not BOLTED to the ground), but we will probably use rebar and tie lines to keep it in place, unless I just use enough PVC pipe to cross over each individual bed in which case, it would sit inside the box and the sides of the box would hold the PVC in place…

I’m still trying to work out the pros and cons of each and decide whether to fork out the extra $ for a larger structure with potential to make working in the garden more comfortable for us,  or go cheap and end up hating every second we step outside just to retrieve some veggies and make sure the soil has some moisture in it…. *sigh*

Any suggestions out there?  The actual structure itself is either going to be entirely PVC (which is cheap and flexible), or electrcial conduit (stronger, but more expensive as it is priced by the foot), or a combination of both…