When I lived in a higher altitude in NM, I had my husband build hinged frame tops that I could flip up to expose or down to cover. The tops made of PVC pipes were covered with shade cloth sewn onto the pipes. The tops were covering a wooden platform with N-sulate cloth covered semps. The platform was balanced between 4 rain barrels so that being off the ground the semps were safe from rodents and other animals. The winters consisted of the flipping up or down of the frame tops depending on how much sun was shining that day. Suffice to say that the lids were hard to flip when it snowed the nite before.
Now I am in zone 9b and all the semps have been replanted in a raised bed. I think I will still blanket the semps with either shade cloth of N-sulate cloth but I am concerned about if when these blankets get wet from unpredicted rain and the nite happens to be near frost temps, the semps might be suceptible to damage. Anybody have that worry?
