I have a few pots on my deck for some herbs and green onions and my only choice is to keep them on the deck (if I bring them inside, the cats dig in the dirt). Our deck faces west and during the summertime it can get HOT with that beaming sun! Last year my plants got fried I was thinking a mini greenhouse wouldn't help out much because that hot sun would still be shining on them and creating even more heat inside an enclosure.

The idea I have right now is to build an awning type structure to sit over the plants, but with possibly an organza fabric so it protects, but still lets light through to my plants. (The fabric has to be kind of sheer because a solid fabric would completely shade the plants from the sun since it beams down at a like, I dont know, 45 degree angle?)

Any idea if this would be a good idea? Any other tips or tricks you have? Any information would be great really! Thanks!

@ninaleeG welcome to NGA There is a woven shade cloth that comes in ranges of 30% (sun block) to 80% (sun block) here are some links to places that sell shade cloth. You might also check out the big box stores with garden centers. I hope this helps.

http://www.shadeclothstore.com...

http://www.growerssolution.com...

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00XCBN8JO/

edited for spelling

My daughter had the same problem. She recently found these cute little umbrellas for plants.
http://www.shadeforplants.com/

Hi and welcome, ninaleeG. It's very important to keep the roots cool. A big help would be to make sure your plants are growing in white or light-colored pots to keep the sun from heating up the roots. The ones made of a sort of a thick, foam type plastic are probably the best to insulate the roots from the heat. Black nursery pots are terrible for heating up, but you can buy spray paint and paint them a light color, or white. Be sure to get the kind of paint that will stick to plastic.

If your pots are dark-colored and you really like them, you could paint them with something temporary, just put a wrap or curtain of something like aluminum foil around them for the hottest part of the summer. Or buy bigger, light colored pots and slip the dark ones inside the light colored ones for the hot weather.

It also helps to group your pots together so that the plants help to shade each other. The shade cloth - something like 30% shade - is a great idea, but maybe make your little awning just big enough to shade in the middle of the day so your plants get the sun later on when it's not so intense. Organza or other ordinary fabric won't hold up in the sun. It just disintegrates after a month or two.

Thank you! I had no idea this existed!

Then there's the shade sails you can use for your deck area:

https://www.google.ca/imgres?i...