HEAT WAVE Survival Save Your Garden NOW or You ll Be Sorry

Another year, another massive heat wave threatens to destroy our entire garden and ruin a year's worth of work in a single week. Don't be a victim of the weather. On today's video, I am going to show you how to fight back against summer heat and how I grow a healthy, thriving garden all summer long despite living in one of the hottest, most humid locations in the entire country. These techniques actually work and I can prove it. Do these things now and save your garden. Don't lose it. I'm going to dive headfirst into this video and start by showing you all of the techniques that I use to protect my summer garden from heat. Then at the end of the video, I'll explain to you the science behind it and why this is applicable to everybody no matter where they live. I'm also going to be featuring a number of different items in this video that I use to protect my garden. I'll place direct links down to all of them in the video description so you can find them with ease. Step number one is to install shade cloth to protect your plants. This is by far the easiest and most effective thing that you can do to protect your plants from heat. Shade cloth comes in all different sizes. You can pick up a small one to cover individual garden beds for only about $20. You can get a massive one that can cover your entire garden or more for well under $100. It's cheap, it's easy to install in a wide variety of ways, and it works incredibly well. I've been using these shade tarps for five or six years and they're still good as new, so they are a long-term investment for a very small price. There are many different ways that you can install shade cloth in your garden. The easiest way is to run to Lowe's or Home Depot or whatever your local big box store is and buy half-inch PVC electrical conduit and then bend it and install a little hoop house over your raised garden beds or in rows if you grow directly in an earth garden. Then all you do is you simply take the shade cloth and you drape it over the hoop house and then you secure it down with half-inch PVC snap clamps like this. You can toss a shade cloth over a raised garden bed in about 30 seconds and it's why I have little PVC hoop structures installed on almost all of my garden beds all throughout my garden. I use them year-round. I put agricultural fabric to block frost in winter, shade cloth in the summer, and then insect netting in the shoulder seasons when we have bugs but it's neither too hot nor too cold. They are year-round game changers. The second way to install shade cloth is to install it overhead using a series of stainless steel wire rope and attach it to the wire rope. And this is a real game changer because in this scenario, you can garden underneath the shade cloth. Yeah, it's great to keep our plants protected and all, but the problem is we still don't want to be out baking in the sun so we may neglect our plants. If you can install it overhead, well, that means we can garden under the protection and we will be a lot more likely to work in our garden all throughout the summer and take care of our plants and then we won't have to go through the hassle of removing the shade cloth to access them. And the best part is this is really easy and cheap to do. So here's how I do it. I have wood posts installed in my garden every eight feet or so and then at the top of every single wood post, I have a simple shelf hook that then has an eye bolt installed on it. And then from that eye bolt, I have a turnbuckle which you use for tension in a wire rope. And then I have stainless steel cable that goes across my entire garden every eight feet or so. There's stainless steel cables that I used to use for trellising back in the day everywhere. And that allows me to basically install the shade cloth anywhere I want and then I can just secure it using the grommets in the shade cloth. It's very simple to do. Stainless steel wire rope is dirt cheap and so are the turnbuckle kits that I use to secure the wire rope. So I'll show you just how easy this process is. So this shade tarp behind me is a 10 foot by 20 foot shade tarp. I have a stainless steel cable installed every 10 feet. So zero, 10, 20. So there's one on each end of the 20 foot span and one in the middle to give it a little bit of support. Then I secure the shade tarp to the stainless steel cables using two inch galvanized carabiners and a stainless steel wire rope attachment kit. Links in the description to all these different items. They're all really cheap. So in the grommeted end of this shade tarp, I installed one of these two inch galvanized carabiners and I'm going to pull this very taut as much as I can and I'm going to clip this onto this cattle panel that I have erected right here. But just pretend that this is an eighth inch stainless steel wire rope like I'm going to show you throughout the rest of the video. It's basically the same concept. It's just easier for me to hook onto this. So now I have the left end of the shade tarp secured. So I'm going to go ahead and I'm going to secure the right end to that stainless steel cable right there and put tension in the tarp. Then I will secure the middle to extend it fully and we'll have a perfect shade tarp pulled across that third of the garden. And to do that, I'm going to use one of these wire rope clamps right here and a two inch carabiner. So watch this. I'm going to take the other end of the shade tarp where the end grommet is and I'm going to put the carabiner in the hole and I'm going to walk it over to the wire ramp. The wire rope that I'm going to use to secure it to. That can stay put for a minute. Then I'm going to slide the shade cloth forward until I get maximum tension which is right about here. Then I'm going to take the wire rope clamp and I'm going to remove the small nuts and that will separate the attachment into two pieces. Then I'm going to pull the shade cloth forward to where it has maximum tension and I'm going to pull off the carabiner. And I'm going to take the u-shaped portion of the clamp and I'm going to take that and feed it through the carabiner and then feed the other piece on to clamp it down. Then once that carabiner is held onto place I'm going to screw the nuts on and I'm going to start off by doing this just to hand tightness just to hold it on. So I have one nut on. Let's put on the second one just to hand tightness right there. And then once we have our shade cloth and the clamp pulled to maximum tightness we're going to use a little mini screwdriver ratchet and we're just going to tighten the nuts down and that is going to fasten the shade cloth to the wire rope at maximum tension. Then we need to secure the center of the tarp. I have an eighth inch stainless steel cable installed dead center in the middle of the tarp to give it a little bit of support and I already have the carabiner and this wire rope clamp installed. So I'm just going to stretch it out to where I need it to be then I'm going to take my ratchet screwdriver and I'm going to tighten down the nuts and then that is nice and tight and that shade sail is now installed. This is amazing. For about $50 or $60 worth of material I installed two shade tarps on each side of my garden. So I have the 10x20 right here that I will freely be able to garden under that are protecting these raised beds and then I have another one right here that I will be able to garden under and I'm going to put a bunch of cucumbers in that little narrow perimeter bed right there because they need a little bit of shade protection. And while I do have an open point in the middle you see the way my garden is oriented is the sun rises over here in the east this greenhouse tarp is going to block a lot of the morning sun. I'll have a little bit of a transition where I'll be able to block most of the morning sun coming from this angle and then the sun sets over those trees there so this tarp is going to cast a lot of shade. So there will be instances of a little bit of direct sun but overall I'm going to get a ton of protection and of course I will be able to garden under this and I won't have to stress myself out anymore. Then we have the third option the advanced solution and that is building a roof over my garden. I spent the last two winters building this wood frame over my garden that I then put some cattle panel trellis on and I strapped this wonderful greenhouse tarp to and this greenhouse tarp not only blocks about 30% of the UV index but it also blocks the rain which causes tremendous damage in my yard and garden. So if you really want an interesting build how to protect your garden from all of the worst things build a roof over it and I'll link to a playlist both above and down in the video description that will show you how I constructed this. It took a little bit of time but it has been a game changer. Before I put the greenhouse tarp up on the cattle panel roof I actually installed a shade tarp over it last year and that was incredible. That was one of the best things I ever did until I upgraded to these tarps and I do want you to see the true reality of what my garden looks like now that it is protected. It's the first week of July and by now typically a lot of my tomatoes are dead but because I'm protecting them from both the sun and the rain my tomatoes have never looked so good. They are eight feet tall they are loaded with literally thousands of tomatoes I've been harvesting hundreds of them. It's been absolutely crazy. My garden has never looked better. Same thing with my peppers. They have never looked better. They love growing under the shade. However, I made a little bit of a miscalculation. I built a little garden roof extension right here to cover my indeterminate tomatoes and they are not nearly as happy because you see over here with this nice big thick tarp I'm getting tons of sun protection as well as rain protection. Well, right here I'm only getting a little bit of rain protection. It's not wide enough and they still get blasted by the morning sun and the afternoon sun and as a result I'm starting to lose my indeterminate tomato plants. A lot of them are dying and I'm in the process of actually removing them and that is well this is a determinate that's supposed to die back but this one is not so I'm getting a lot of issues with diseases on these because while I did protect them from the rain I did not protect them enough from the sun so I should have done this earlier I should have had that greenhouse tarp over them and also this shade tarp right here to connect the two systems. Had I done that they would be in much better shape so now I know in future years this small tarp above is not enough. I need a shade cloth extension so this is how we learn the hard way but this is a lesson I will never forget and I wanted to share that with you. So now I have the first shade tarp that is going to block a lot of the eastern sun that then hits my greenhouse tarps which are going to protect all of my tomatoes to another shade tarp extension over here and then more greenhouse tarps back there. The only thing I really need to figure out is if I need one more shade tarp in the center I very well may decide to go with it. I do have another tarp it would probably be a good idea but now my garden is almost entirely protected and it will be a lot happier and more productive. This is the best thing you can possibly do to your garden to protect against the summer heat. If you're enjoying this video made by a real human being and not AI would you please consider subscribing to the channel. YouTube dramatically changed their algorithm over the past year to favor shorts content and give that a bigger spotlight than long format content so between the algorithm changes and all of the AI slop that's being dumped by the truckload onto the platform it's been really hard for us long format content creators to find new audiences. So doing things like subscribing to the channel and hitting the like button and leaving a comment goes miles to help spread these videos across the platform. So if you enjoy this type of long format content instead of doom scrolling brain rot I'd really appreciate your support. Now that we've discussed the importance of installing shade cloth overhead and how to do it we need to move on to step number two and that is mulching our garden. I'm hoping most of you have mulched your garden by now but if you have not it is critical that we do it to battle summer heat. Mulching has so many benefits. Yes, it blocks and stops weed germination and prevents weeds from taking over your garden. Yes, it also decays and adds organic matter into our soil but the thing that we really need right now is the soil cooling and moisture retention effects of mulch. Mulch actually reflects sunlight so if you have naked soil that sun is beating down on it and it's causing rapid evaporation as well as big fluctuations in soil moisture because the top couple inches will be bone dry and it may be wet a few inches underneath but it's going to dry out at an enhanced rate and it's also going to be hotter than the plants want and hot roots do not perform well. Your plants will be stressed so when you put mulch down it reflects light back into the atmosphere so it cools the soil. It protects the soil below as well as the soil microbiology so things like bacteria, beneficial fungi and yes also earthworms and other creepy crawlies in the soil that helps us well they will all be insulated from the heat thanks to the protective layer of mulch and because it's preventing evaporation we will be able to have more consistent irrigation of our plants. Our plants get stressed out when they go from very dry to then very wet to very dry again. They want to maintain even soil moisture give it a deep watering and then don't irrigate it for a while and let the soil hold on to that moisture and mulch is critical for that to happen. When it comes to selecting a mulch any natural mulch will do. My favorite mulch for the garden is to go out and buy bales of wheat straw and then let them sit in the sun and rain for about two months to break down and they will decay into this wonderful organic matter and this is helpful because there is usually residual wheat seed in wheat straw so if you use it fresh those wheat seeds may start to germinate and you don't really want that. If you let them break down for about two months they will rot into this awesome organic matter and all the seeds will rot so you won't get the germination issues and then you can just mulch all your plants with this gold. But there are plenty other great mulches you can use in your garden you can use shredded bark mulches pine bark nuggets cedar mulch cypress mulch redwood mulch you can use pine straw you can use weed free pesticide free and herbicide free grass clippings you can use shredded leaves you can use arborist wood chips there's just lots of great stuff that you can use. Just don't use dyed mulch and rubber mulch because rubber mulch is made out of old tires and refuse products you don't want that breaking down and leaching into your soil and you don't want to use dyed mulch because it's mostly ground up pallets and construction supplies like lumber possibly pressure treated lumber that they then dye to make it look like a natural wood product when it's not you don't want that stuff breaking down in your garden. I also don't like stone mulch because it doesn't break down and add organic matter so I would stay away with that as well any of those natural mulching alternatives will work great. Hey what are you doing over there Pecorino? I thought you left us I haven't seen you in a while you can hide from me but you can't hide from Dale on the upside that bunny just helped me spot this looks like our first fig of the year this is a ronde de bordeaux right there my fig trees are getting annihilated by the heat this year this one looks like a good one absolutely delicious first main crop fig and step number three is a strong recommendation to install drip irrigation I know a lot of people are resistant to installing drip irrigation but it is truly the best way to irrigate our gardens because not only is it very efficient and it will pay for itself over time because you will be using a small fraction of the amount of water than you will for overhead irrigation because it penetrates deeply into the soil instead of losing all that surface water to evaporation but you'll get a much healthier garden for it plants like being watered deeply not shallow watered and when you shallow water well it also tends to splash the soil onto the undersides of the leaves of the plants and it leads to disease so you're going to get more production save on your water bill and you're just going to have healthier plants that last a lot longer if you install drip irrigation but the real benefit to it is the time savings watering our gardens especially if we have a big garden is miserable especially in the heat it is an awful chore so what happens is when we get these heat waves we don't want to be outside so we actually under fertilize and under irrigate our gardens because we want to stay away so at the time that our garden needs us the most we tend to be nowhere to be found so if you can install drip irrigation all you have to do is just turn on your spigot or set a timer and it will automatically irrigate the gardens for us when they need it so we won't skip out on these chores because it won't be a chore if you're intimidated at the thought of installing drip irrigation don't be afraid it's actually kind of easy and once you get into a rhythm it's borderline fun you get into this motion and it's like putting together a lego set i actually really enjoy it if you want to learn how to install drip irrigation do virtually any orientation raised garden beds container gardens earth rows installing the distribution line i have a full playlist dedicated to all of that i'll link to that playlist both above and down in the video description it's easy it's affordable and you'll save so much time and money in the long run and your garden will provide bigger harvests as a result following these tips you will have a virtually heat-proof garden that will survive these summer heat waves with ease now with all of that being said the mulching and drip irrigation segments here were pretty self-explanatory we all understand why we need to do that or why it would improve our garden and our lives but what about the shade cloth? we all understand why people in the deep south florida texas california the desert we understand why places with extremely long and hot and oppressive summers would need shade cloth but what about people in other areas where the summers are milder or these heat waves are intermittent well i strongly recommend that everybody have shade cloth on hand and here is why temperature is not the only reason why we use shade cloth it is just as valuable if not more valuable to protect against uv index so you may think that you live in an area where you only get a few heat waves you can do without shade cloth well you may be getting pounded by extreme amounts of uv for example here where i live in the southeast we basically live at zero elevation and our air is very humid so all that water vapor in the air and our zero elevation leads to a very dense atmosphere that actually blocks a lot of uv and reflects it back into space due to all of the water vapor in the air and how thick the atmosphere is at zero elevation if you live in a place like wyoming or montana or colorado or the dakotas you may think well i have a short growing season we only get a few heat waves we don't really need shade cloth well actually your relatively dry air with very low humidity at high elevation means that you have a thinner atmosphere so it protects less against uv and the lack of humidity in the air reflects less of it back into space so you are actually really vulnerable to uv damage so even if you live in a relatively short season climate you still may want to use some shade cloth to reflect some of that uv and protect your plants if sunburn and heat stress is an issue also for you folks in the desert southwest where you have a lot of heat for a very long period of time be happy to know that shade cloth is even more effective because you have such dry air here in the southeast it's so humid that even when you walk under shade cloth it's still pretty gross out even though it makes a tremendous difference overall well if you live in a place like phoenix or vegas or maybe you're in new mexico where it's really unbearably hot you walk under shade cloth it is going to have a dramatic cooling and stress relief effect it's going to be like walking into a whole new climate entirely so drier climates can really benefit from the shade cloth so no matter who you are and where you live at the end of the day you're going to want to have shade cloth on hand whether you have really long summers where you're going to leave it up for months at a time or you just need to intermittently throw it on it's really cheap to buy you can install it in minutes it'll be a great thing to have and if you can install it on aerial cables you too can benefit by gardening under it so i really hope you take the information i presented in this video and you act on it to build your own heat proof garden you will be so glad you did so everybody i sure hope you found the information in this video helpful and entertaining if you did please make sure to hit the like button subscribe to the channel and please ring the notification bell so you're notified when i release more videos like these again i place direct product links in the video description to all of the items that i featured in this video for your convenience for everything else i use in real life in my yard and garden that is all linked in my amazon storefront in the video description and while you're down there please check out my website themillennialgardener.com for all things gardening and custom home design merch if you want to support my channel thank you all so much for watching and i hope to see all of you again on the next video hey dale look up ahead buddy we have the most amazing thing at the pond today we have all these canada geese with their little baby goslings look how cute mom and dad are out with the kids enjoying this beautiful spring day and we can't get too close buddy we have to hang back at the pond because they probably won't appreciate us too much getting close to them what a gorgeous day for early june there's no humidity i can't believe it and dale is really in his element and so are the little babies