Awesome looking plants, who knew sunflowers came in anything but yellow. I have been browsing different posts and am falling in love with different plants. I read one about night gardens and sweet night fragrances they give off am going to try for Moonflowers again this year love their smell. A gardener named Sharon posted a white flower that I am intrigued about, who thought I could become so addicted. My uncle lives in garland and says to keep cats off plants to dump coffee grounds in the bed. Amazing what family starts sharing.

Blessings

Coffee grounds are good for the garden and many coffee shops like most Starbucks save them for anyone to take free. Might check into those around your area.

If it was posted by @Sharon, you cannot go wrong. She definitely knows her plants!

Couldn't agree more about Chamblee's being the go-to place for roses! I bought several of their roses this year through one of Mamajack's co-ops (plug for Mamajack - she has great co-ops!) and they are very nice plants! Small, but vigorous.

Been searching the forums here for info on shade fabric. Wondering if there is a brand that folks think is really good ? I did look at shadeclothstore.com mentioned in one of the posts here. They have that aluminet - seems expensive --

The shade cloth sold by Home Depot is fine. They even sell some at Walmart. There are different 'strengths' depending on how much shade you need.

Aluminet is perhaps the top-of-the-line fabric, but because of its cost, I use less-expensive fabric. What can I say, I'm cheap!

I use two different fabrics. The first one came from "The Greenhouse Catalog" and was purchased with my first greenhouse. It is black and is a 75% cloth. When I built my second greenhouse, I went with a green fabric (I thought it was less "commercial-looking" and it came from "Greenhouse Nation". It is an 80% shade cloth since this greenhouse gets more sunlight. Both of these are some soft of woven plastic material. I don't use any sort of shade from the end of October until the end of April. The sun is too low in the southern sky to be a problem (at least for me and what I grow).

Contact @hawkaria and @Ursula and they will tell you about their use of the Aluminet product. They are very knowledgeable orchid growers.

@Greene and @Drdawg thanks for the info. I'm gonna get some on hand, as it won't be long before we have hot days in Texas.

I'm wondering about putting solar screen on the greenhouse -- maybe taking out the panels. Hum ... might work really good here in Texas.

Carol, you'd certainly like some the extra ventilation for your greenhouse in summer if you're going to keep any plants in there. Even with shade cloth over it, I'd think the hot sun would 'cook' some plants on a 100+ day.

I have a 6ft. by 9ft. Aluminet sheet that is on its 3rd year and not showing any breakdown. I've had a bad result with some shade cloth from Home Depot which I put over my pergola at the other house, and it was only a year before it started disintegrating. They gave me my money back on that one. Our sun is very strong, with clear air, and it was in full sun all the time, so a really tough test. But . . the Aluminet sure has been more worth the money I spent. It was about twice the price of the regular shade cloth.

You can buy it online in varying percentage of shade from 30% to 80%. Just google Aluminet. I got mine from Shade Cloth Store.com If you don't want to spend that much just be sure that what you buy has a guarantee and says it's UV resistant or treated.

My first shade cloth will be starting its fourth year and the green one will be starting its third. I don't use shade cloth from the end of October through February. Both shades are doing fine. Brittleness would usually be the first sign of breakdown, where the "plastic" fabric will begin to tear. It is over for the fabric then.

If/when I expand my porch and make it a sun/Florida room, I have a feeling I will need some shade fabric. My plans are to have 8-10' of glass overhead and the entire outer (east exposure) "wall" will be glass. That wall will be 32' long and 9' high. I don't know how I will shade what glass needs shading. Hopefully the glass experts will have an answer for that. Aluminet may be and answer.

This is why I need a larger, climate controlled sunroom. Here's the porch this week.

Nice porch, Ken. And I see you have the door propped open to let some house warmth out into the porch. Know about that for both the porch and the garage, but only if the cold spell is really extreme or if I've managed to let anything resembling warm air out doing something and want to replace it quickly.

@dyzzypyxxy thanks for the info. Yes, I think it will be too hot here in Texas in just a couple of months for much of anything in the GH. But, I am cogitating on an idea of screening the GH (maybe sun screen) - and solid top -- and then using the fabric block where needed. I'd sure love to keep things in there - and not have to worry about deer, possum, snakes, and all other manner of critter - although I know they can chew through screen too.

That is a gorgeous porch/sun room @drdawg
Makes me what to curl up with a cup of coffee.

Down here, people with greenhouses remove - or roll up - the sides in the warm months to allow free air flow, and put shade cloth over the roofs and part way down the sides. That's the only way to make them useable for growing in summer.