If those features face north, the midday sun can give them as much appeal as a blast furnace. To keep your sun zones cool when temperatures start to soar, follow these shade-making strategies.
Fabric Fixes
An easy two-weekend project, shade sails are a versatile alternative to patio umbrellas. Sails hook onto steel or wood posts anchored in hefty concrete footings.
Textile Eclipse
For fast relief, create shade with fabric in the form of an umbrella or an awning. Look for products that not only block the sun, but also are water-repellent and mildew-resistant.
To benefit from the cooling comforts of a patio umbrella, simply make an excursion to a home-supply store. The most versatile models have offset poles that enable you to see the person sitting across the table, and swivel so you can block the sun at any angle. A rolling base adds the convenient option of moving the rig around the yard.
Shadow Land
For a balcony or a patio beside the house, the best choice is often a retractable awning attached to an exterior wall. It not only cools down the area beneath it, but also lowers the temperature in the adjacent indoor room, thereby reducing air-conditioning costs. The least expensive models have simple, hand-cranked folding frames; more sophisticated awnings incorporate motorized panels with tilting mechanisms that allow you to independently adjust both ends of the unit for maximum coverage.
Under Sail
Shade sails consist of knitted, high-density polyethylene fabric panels that block more than 90 percent of harmful ultraviolet rays. The advantage of the sails is versatility; due to the weave, they can be pulled taut, tilted and overlapped in almost sculptural patterns. Part of the appeal is that they have such a light and airy look.
Cool Hardscaping
For most gardens, an open-roofed pergola offers shelter without sacrificing outdoor pleasures like cooling breezes and the scent of flowers and freshly mowed lawns.
Endless options enable you to blend the structure with the architecture of your home. Columns of wood or composites rated for structural use are surprisingly easy to install and lend a weighty, traditional look.
As with any garden structure, make sure the posts and beams are rot- and bug-resistant, and beefy enough to support the weight. Posts should be anchored to a concrete patio or sunk into concrete footings.
Wood Works
For the ultimate long-term solution, there's nothing like a tree. An ideal shade tree is high and wide enough to accommodate a table beneath. Start small - little nursery trees are less likely to have girdling roots, cost less to buy and are easier to plant, yet they establish quickly and soon are as large or larger than bigger specimens. And while you are waiting for your trees to grow, you can employ one of the shade strategies listed above.
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