How to Grow Food in the Heat of the Summer
Discover essential tips for growing food in the heat of summer, from deep watering and mulching to composting and shading. Overcome common gardening challenges and keep your plants thriving despite the intense heat
7/16/20245 min read
Growing Food in the Heat of Summer
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Click the video above for the audio/visual version
How to Grow in the Heat of Summer
4 Tips for Saving Your Plants from Dying
Wondering how to keep your garden thriving in the scorching summer heat? Look no further. Below we explain how to:
Let's dig in!
The main thing that is bothering most American gardeners right now is how hot it is and how that is affecting a lot of the produce we were expecting to get.
In our home, whatever has survived the heat (which surprisingly has been a lot) has been eaten by harlequin bugs (kale), deer, and my husband Dave's nemesis: The Groundhog!
But let's deal with challenge #1: The Heat
1. Water Your Plants
Water deep and during the cooler times of the day
Water
If your plants are drying up due to neglect in a climate where rainfall is scarce, this is your first priority: Watering.
Water deep and early in the day when there's less chance of evaporation. In our Virginia home, this happens around 6 AM in the morning. We don't have a drip irrigation set up yet, but we do have hoses and buckets. And that's what we're doing first thing garden-wise.
Drip irrigation is a great investment for those who have a hard time keeping up with a larger growing space and the time to fill up buckets of water. If your budget will allow it, I highly recommend it. We have the apparatus but have not yet set it up. This is costing us time, for sure. But we have other garden priorities right now such as a fence to protect more veggies from the deer and groundhog.
Using drip irrigation can be helpful.
Mulching with leaves from neighbor's yard
Why Mulching Matters
Mulching is so underrated but so necessary. Mulching reduces the need to water your plants by at least 25% according to Brad Lancaster, author of "Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands." We use straw to mulch our beds. If you have created a Lasagna Garden earlier in the season and find that now you have bare soil, you will want to re-mulch as that previous mulch may have decomposed into soil at this point in time. This extra layer of straw need not be an additional input taken from outside your home.
2. Utilize Mulch to Conserve Moisture
Minivan stuffed with straw mulch and kids
Do you see the difference in soil color and moisture between dry topsoil and compost?
The power of compost (and compost tea)
3. Enhance Soil Health with Compost
In the middle of summer, plants such as tomatoes, are likely flagging or our cucumbers are curling and shriveling up on the vine from the stress that heat brings. Add compost to your garden if you haven't done this yet. And if you've been doing this and you feel like it's not working, soak that compost into a bucket and water it with compost water instead of just plain water. This delivers a much-needed dose of water + nutrients + life in the soil at a time of dearth.
I am a big proponent of using "compost tea." So much so that is my current research which you can read more about HERE
These "sails" act as shade cloth to plants beneath them
Use a shade cloth
Finally, the fourth tip I have to offer is that of creating some temporary shade for your plants. Don't smother them in a tarp for instance, but lift that tarp up on stakes to provide your plants with shade. Sure it may look weird, but if it can help keep your crops alive, I'm all for it at this point in the season. Don't have a tarp? Use old bed sheets and a few tall sticks. Find creative ways to shield your plants from the sun they don't need, if only for a few days or weeks.
4. Create Temporary Shade for Your Crops
Sandy's Arizona garden covered in shade cloth.
If you're asking which one of the tips is right for you. I have to say, all four of them of course! And perhaps some that I may not have thought of that you are already implementing.
Feel free to share what YOU do with us via email at permaculturegardens@gmail.com or better yet, join the GIY Community, where you can find encouragement from gardens around the US with similar challenges as yours.
Which one of the above do I absolutely need to do this summer?
Addendum: What NOT To Do in Your Garden this Summer
Don't get heat exhaustion like I did. Don't go out without sunscreen or some sort of hat.
Don't go out at the high noon and water your plants. You can cover your plants but don't shock them right then. Don't feel bad if you can't go out in the garden right now.
Don't leave your small potted plants to bake or your composting worms outside
3 Tips
3 Things you CAN do
If it's just too hot and growing outdoors makes you want to quit gardening altogether
Grow indoors, start with microgreens... See HERE for a blog all about Growing Indoors!
Bring in your potted plants
Conserve water - no baths, don't use up your allotted portion of water, and watch the video (coming soon) about the time that we totally ran out of water on our farm!
Permaculture Gardens - your online resource for organic & sustainable gardens.
Contact
permaculturegardens@gmail.com
Bethany Farm
41558 Stumptown Rd.,
Leesburg, VA 20176