calgary has a large area over head that has a real low level of ozone in the ozone atmospheric layer and thus our sun is less filtered as it hits the earth, thus our higher levels of skin cancer in comparison to other areas of canada. i haven't been affected but my wife has and many of our fair skinned neighours. it was an eye opener at the cancer clinic as to how many people suffer from this version of cancer, standing room only. we keep sun block handy and the kids get a squirt before going outside, almost like misting them with epsom salt - which i do use on my skin. mist the plants, mist my arms. guess you could call me an old softy!
sunscald is different than reactions of plants that experience direct sunlight and react from lack of hardening. my plants are exposed to sunlight during winter months(almost all day long, though as short as our winter days are) but it is refracted by windows. so even as june approaches, they still have to be hardened off. there is no recovery of leaves that experience sunscald, i find it best just to pinch off these leaves so new growth is encouraged. i just transplanted a tomato plant and left it on my deck and the wind just hammered it, it was completely wilted. i brought it in, out of the sun/wind and gave it some aspirin water. it appears to be recovering.
i don't have cats but have a rolled up newspaper just for sparky our dog. incase she gets any silly ideas about my peppers plants. she has trampled my strawberry patch in an attempt to catch some mice. even with a fence, her fox like thinking has found away around the fence. i tried the spray bottle routine but she just tries to catch the jets of water, then barks if you stop wanting to play. mice are her nemesis, a few years ago one found its way into the house and she was on alert all night long for a week, until i finally caught it; poor sparky didn't sleep for a week.
all the plants are in the house again tonight as 8/9C is my cut off temp as to stay outside or come in but i gauge that based on the wind. all the plants are in totes so hauling them in is relatively easy but a pain. in the past, i have used that soft plastic, stapled up on my deck railing to provide wind protection - i think they call it carpet runner plastic, it comes in rolls but after several years of weathering in becomes brittle a falls apart, perhaps i should have pulled it down in the winter. my deck is 5 feet off the ground but watching the tree tops rock in the wind, i can only imagine what a 4th floor balcony is experiencing.
good luck.
