What to do with hot vinyl fence??

lancian 2/17/2011, 11:13 pm

I have a small back yard surrounded with white Vinyl fencing. The only place to put my SF garden is to run a two foot box along the back fence where it gets sufficient sunlight. The problem I have is the white fence reflects a lot of heat and burns most of the vegetables. Last year was my first year and failed miserably, I'm determined to fix the issues this year.

Do any of you have experience in dealing with this type of situation? I know the garden would do really well if it wasn't for the fence and I can't really put the garden anywhere else. Please help! Do you think covering the fence with wooden or vinyl lace would fix the problem? Should I cover the fence with some kind of fabric? Both?

Your solutions would save my garden! and I would really appreciate it.

Lance

acara 2/18/2011, 6:42 am

Easiest (cheapest) way I've found is burlap.

You can either run it in a straight line between 2 stakes (needs support every 2'-3' feet, for when it gets wet), or put tomato cages aroung each plant and clothespin it to the back-half of the cage (self supporting/even wet) so that the burlap is between the reflecting surface and the plant/fruit.

Other than that, you can make solo-greenhouses out of PVC & use window screening.

Direct sun eats us up down here in the South, so I feel yr pain.

Megan 2/18/2011, 7:42 am

Hi Lance, and welcome to the forum! $glad you\'re here$

I'm glad I don't have that fence problem (I've got a different kind of fence problem Rolling Eyes

) but Acara is a wonderful resource to us for solving gardening problems, especially in your area.

Best of luck with your SFG this year, I hope we hear much more about your plans, and maybe even see some pictures, too.

Happy gardening! flower

acara 2/18/2011, 10:23 am

Opps, sorry ...missed post count ...

*embarassed*

WELCOME!

**WardinWake** 2/18/2011, 3:04 pm

Howdy Lancian:

Glad to have you as a new member. Where did you find your vermiculite? If your source is not in the vermiculite database can you enter it? The database was created to help folks find vermiculite who are having trouble locating 1/3 of Mel's Mix.

Thanks and again WELCOME,

God Bless, Ward and Mary
Wake, VA.

BackyardBirdGardner 2/18/2011, 4:05 pm

Welcome aboard, Lancain.

As for your issue, I wonder if you couldn't get farther away from the fence than you think with all that reflective heat/light? MM could be a pain to move, but as for a long term solution, I wonder if you couldnt just take your back boards of your beds and make them the front boards. Sort of like rolling it away one roll if it were empty.

I wish I could draw a picture of what I mean, but that would put another 2 feet between the garden and the fence, and likely get you a little further from your source. If it's white vinyl, the albedo (reflectivity) would likely still be pretty darned high....allowing light to the backs of your plants.

Acara? Might that work, too?

Old Hippie 2/19/2011, 1:23 am

Nice to have you join us Lance. What to do with hot vinyl fence?? 654548

I haven't actually had the same problem as you describe but have read about it in some gardening books. Burlap was a solution recommended as a quick fix. Acara likes easy and cheap and I have to admit.....that is my philosophy too. Free is even better.

Hope it helps. best of luck with your garden this year. I am waaaaayyyy north in the land of perpetual ice and snow so it will be a while before I can get gardening.

Gwynn

What to do with hot vinyl fence?? 90640

ander217 2/19/2011, 6:52 am

Hi, Lance,

Can't add anything to the previous suggestions, but just wanted to pop in and say welcome to the forum.

What to do with hot vinyl fence?? 396615

lancian 2/19/2011, 1:03 pm

I'll have to look into the suggestions. I have no idea what Burlap and Acara but I'll check Google University for the information. I'll post updates when I figure out a solution. I'll try a few things before giving in to moving the garden which I may be able to do but it won't be cheap and easy.

As for the question where I get the Vermiculite I don't remember the story name but know where it is. If I do get the name and address where is that "database" that I can enter it into?

Again thanks for the warm welcome, this is probably the friendliest forum I've ever been to!

Lance

Megan 2/19/2011, 1:17 pm

The database is here:

https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/Vermiculite-Entry-Form-h1.htm

Another way to find it is to go to the main forum page (https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/) and scroll down. There are quite a few links on that main page.

Enjoy!

acara 2/19/2011, 2:13 pm

Acara likes easy and cheap and I have to admit.....

About fell out of my chair laughing at that one ...... your the first person here to "accuse" me of that ..

made me giggle Very Happy

acara 2/19/2011, 2:16 pm

BackyardBirdGardner wrote:Welcome aboard, Lancain.

As for your issue, I wonder if you couldn't get farther away from the fence than you think with all that reflective heat/light? MM could be a pain to move, but as for a long term solution, I wonder if you couldnt just take your back boards of your beds and make them the front boards. Sort of like rolling it away one roll if it were empty.

I wish I could draw a picture of what I mean, but that would put another 2 feet between the garden and the fence, and likely get you a little further from your source. If it's white vinyl, the albedo (reflectivity) would likely still be pretty darned high....allowing light to the backs of your plants.

Acara? Might that work, too?

Understand what u mean.

Best guess .... doubling the distance from a reflective surface should more than halve the intensity. If I remember right, radiant reflect/heat decreases exponentially (vs linear) with distance (through air). Should work.

BackyardBirdGardner 2/19/2011, 2:29 pm

Kind of what I thought, too. Double the distance, take square root of intensity....not that we can measure any of that being the laymen we are. I just wondered about the validity of the theory.

I like cheap, too. But, I also like setting things up right the first time when we talk about SFG. Since SFG is low on the ongoing maintanence, I would rather front-load myself with effort and kick back with a cold one for years to come. But, that may just be me....lol. (Anyone have a beer toasting smiley?)

JohnBarJB 10/27/2011, 2:07 pm

Maybe adding some vinyl fence lattice would work as well. It would still allow sunlight to pass through but block some of the rays. That would be my only suggestion that has not been mentioned yet. We bought some from Boundary Fence in NY for our vines and it worked out well.

**Kelejan** 10/27/2011, 2:18 pm

What I need is the fencing to reflect the light and the heat, 'cause like Gwynne, I live up north, although not as far north.

What to do with hot vinyl fence?? 396615

Lance, and I hope we have solved your problem.

AluminumFence 11/3/2011, 1:54 pm

Hi!

Well I'm a newbie and I just realized this post is from February but still... I've never heard of vinyl fencing doing this but I'm interested in knowing more about potential problems for gardening. thinking

I'll have to ask around (I work for a fence manufacturer) and see if anyone's heard anything like this happening. The burlap idea as well the lattice sounded good to me! Smile

*waves*

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