Window screening is cheap enough, comes in a goodly width, and the black one blocks enough shade, I think, to at least tide things over. You could either knock together a temporary, wooden support for the side not on the fence and staple the screen to it, or be really simple, and use canes or poles in buckets of sand or gravel, and bunch and tie the screen to the poles. This would need to use the fiberglass screening to work, since the aluminum wouldn't be tie-able. If you have a "market" umbrella, it could be set to give the most shade in the afternoon, when it is the hottest, and the most vulnerable plants could go under it.

Getting shallow containers of some sort - waterproof - and setting the neediest plants in them with an inch or two of water might work. And covering the pots - I assume they are mostly the black nursery ones? - so the sun doesn't hit them might also help.

Hope one of these ideas helps, if only to jump start your ideas!

reemay or any sort of spunbond cloth works great, even if it doesn't look wonderful (it's bright white). You can get this at the nurseries. Doubt the big boxes have it. Very lightweight, you can lay it right on top of what you're protecting- it does not have to be supported at all. Rain goes right through it. You will need to secure some of the corners or it'll fly off. We used it to allow things to adjust gradually when installing them in our 'much sunnier than home' fair plot last year.

Probably really thin sheets or even old curtain sheers would work well. I would think you'd want to keep it from touching too much of the foliage, though, especially if it was a dark color.

Its so sad...we don't want to go out due to the restrictions. I think we can only water 2 times a week.

Thanks for the ideas, I think I'll look for some window screening today and rig something up. I don't really have any old curtains or old sheets around (not a "packrat", throw old things out).

Here in Davidson county, we don't have any restrictions yet, which is hard to believe since we haven't had rain in so long. Greensboro had a severe t-storm a couple of weeks ago, with hail and around 3-4" of rain, but here we had absolutely nothing. Looks like another summer like last year, hope everyone doesn't end up losing a lot of plants again.

I think I know a kind of tempo shade that will be your help.it is made of black PP woven wire,I think its name is plant shade.Try this on web,you can find it.You can buy this from garden tools stores I think.

Here is a link that might be useful: plant shade

Odd, why would someone answer a 2008 drought-specific problem 4 years later if not to 'ADVERTISE'??