The Easter holiday is shading time for our greenhouses at home. The larger greenhouse (left) is our cool house which gets external shading and the hot house (right) has internal shading, all in 50% shade net.

You will see that the sides of the cool greenhouse are permanently shaded by withy fence panels and that I have wooded bars above my lean too greenhouse allowing me to put shading well clear of the roof and vents. External shading is perfect for reducing summer temperatures in the greenhouse but I am aware that not every one has a tall ancient wall to build their greenhouse against. (This wall is from the former garden wall of a big house and our small garden was where the old glasshouses for vines were built)

Fixing the shading requires climbing onto the wall and using drawing pins to fix the shading onto the wooden bars – there is a lovely view from up there – and the shading has already lasted for twelve years.

The hot house has some natural shade from a field maple and internal shading is easier to do when keeping temperatures low is not so important.