Getting Your Garden Through Summer Heat

Oh the shade and just the evening it's finally cooling off. It's been hot here. It's been hot everywhere. It's a very hot summer for a lot of people. I want to talk about some things we can do in the garden to help get the plants through these really stressful random days. Pardon the mess. I'm filming everything the day after we had a very bad storm. It's the only day I'm going to have a few weeks to do some filming. So we're just you just got to go with it. It's fine. So methods. Things to keep in mind when it comes to keeping the garden cool. Well a really important one is mulch. Also if you have a succulent garden something like that just disregard this entire video. I'm not talking to you. I've done videos similar to this before and people like well that's gonna rot my cactus. Like well this is we're not talking about how to keep your cactus cool. That's a whole different thing. Now mulch. I don't have any because I have so many plants that that sun's not getting to the soil. So the plants are my mulch. Every few years I add something in there in addition to what gets piled on top of the tropicals during the winter time. But generally you want a good three to four inch layer to help keep the temperatures more cool in the soil. Part of keeping the plants happy and thriving through those warm warm awful days you know scorching heat is making sure that there's available moisture down around those roots. If things get too hot then you start to die off with all that good stuff that we culture in the ground. All the microbes and everything that become part of the nitrogen cycle and everything we need to grow healthy plants. So having a layer of mulch makes a big difference. I'm sure you've noticed you've been out walking around a place before and you can see certain areas usually near a parking lot or something like that. What comes to my mind are like uh little league diamonds and stuff like that where the ground gets really compacted and it's scorching you get near those parking lots or those areas where the soil isn't soil it's just dust because it's been baked and baked and baked and there's just not a lot going on in there anymore. That's what we're trying to avoid. The more healthy you have everything down below the easier things are going to be for your plant because if you have a healthy system down below they can pull up moisture and be nice and happy. So mulch before it gets hot outside if you can right you want to be able to start that culture of good stuff going before things happen but hey better late than never. So if it's gonna be you know 110 degrees and you still haven't mulched and you have lots of open space in your garden do it get it done safely do it in the morning you don't want to kill yourself out there too you got to watch out for a heat stroke and whatnot take frequent breaks into the shade drink lots of water those cool cloths you wrap around your neck those are really helpful whole point there try and keep the sun off of the surface of your garden makes a tremendous difference with how things are going to go when things are really hot out and then everything else is watering that's going to be the main thing here is watering when and how there's options I have overhead irrigation so the way I do things are going to be different from people who either don't have irrigation you have to use a spring cord do it by hand or if you're using dripper soaker hoses I think soaker hoses really are very nice for people who have really good water pressure my water pressure is terrible I put out a soaker hose and it only drips for about maybe six feet and the rest of it just nothing happens but if you have good water pressure try soaker hoses do a few coils around the trees make sure they're you know use about eight inches apart each circle and wind them through the garden and you'll usually want to set those to run this is gonna sound extreme but remember before we get to run time what are we trying to do with plants for healthy roots we want deep infrequent watering right we want the moisture to go really deep so it'll make those roots want to go down if you're watering frequently but not for a long time the roots are going to stay up on the surface roots are going to move to the water that's up top then they're not going down the deeper your root growth the healthier your plants are going to be long term so when we're having these really hot spells I will run my drip I do have some drip here in the garden much more frequently than my overhead irrigation those drip what's nice about is it allows the water to go straight to the soil it's not sitting on top of the leaves it's not evaporating and getting lost it's getting right down into there to those roots but it runs for a very long time so in ground I'll have my drip run for about 45 minutes to an hour and a half depending on the spot over here this zone zone one goes about 45 minutes down there where sun bakes more an hour and a half to two hours about two to three days a week that starts at 6 a.m so this one 6 a.m to about 6 45 this zone from about there to over there that's how long that goes and then about I think I have it set for 7 to usually 8 30 I make some adjustments depending on the weather but that's about what's going on over there really long soaks about twice a week three days a week if it's just like unbelievable scorching heat and I have plants that are moisture lovers okay all these elephant ears the bananas the cannas the gingers these are plants that want a lot of moisture most people your gardens may not be like this right I mean although those of you who are in Florida you're going to wear those it rains enough down there during their growing season hopefully I guess that's not always true but if you have lots of shrubbery and things like that then you could maybe get by with doing that just once a week but generally about every four days is about what you're going to want to do a really really really heavy drink where that's through a soaker hose through drip irrigation if you're doing things overhead then I would really really really like to drive home the point of do not do this in the afternoon ever you can water in the afternoon it rains in the afternoon it's not the end of the world but it's just better to make things make to make things know to make sure that things are proper and moist before the heat of the day sets in you know typically when we're having a heat spell at 6am it could be 85 degrees outside but that also means it's probably gonna be like 105 that day too I'm talking Fahrenheit here I'm so sorry to those of you who don't do the Fahrenheit but you get what I'm saying just hot temperatures that are hotter than what you're used to timers timers are just a huge huge saver when it comes to keeping things properly watered I have one over here don't I here we go get a timer put a timer on your hose makes life so much easier there are so many different types they're relatively affordable you can find plenty of these hose end timers for about 15 to 25 dollars something you can find them even cheaper than that I think this was $14.99 off of Amazon right this is from Amazon I don't use the mechanical timers anymore they're used they still sell them I started using ones where you crank a little knob and they slowly count down and turn the hose off on their own my experience with those about every I don't know fourth or fifth use they seem to break maybe that's just me I don't know so I like to use a digital timer where you can come in here and you can set what time you want everything to start right there first you set the time when you want to start how you want it to run and then how often there's a button so you can run it manually too I highly recommend it I know it seems like a pain to get things set up onto soaker hoses or onto sprinklers but it will make your life so much easier in the long run a couple hours of headache equals a season-long ah growing season what did I what just happened I'm sorry I got distracted I saw my dog run up into the driveway he just got home he's at the vet peace of mind that couple hours of work equals a season-long uh peace of mind which is just you know amazing makes things so much nicer you still have to check your drips and check your soaker hoses make sure that they're working these timers are technology and technology just isn't flawless right so expect to have to change batteries more frequently than you should that happens sometimes you have to replace them too sometimes you just sit out in the sun they don't last very long I like to make sure that when I'm using them they're like this and not laying flat on top of the soil so I can have them up on something really increases the lifespan on those timers and then shade cloth if need be you can always do shade cloth over your plants you know you have to come up with a structure of some sort to hold that whether you know you just put pvc pipes in a bucket full of rocks if you need to to create some kind of structure and use a shade cloth so you're gonna want to go at least a 50% shade cloth I would go 70% if you have it out there over your plants if you're going to all that trouble to shade things because it's getting really hot outside may as well go 70% if you want to extend your shade cloth at least I would say three to five feet ideally more outside we're trying to shade the plants if I was trying to shade this guy I would want to make sure that shade cloth comes over at least three to five feet in every single direction if it's just directly over the plant and it's really tall too if you have it up really high the sun can get underneath there for people like me if you live at the bottom of the hill and you have those houses up there the angle of the sun and everything it's just yeah I don't bother with shade cloth but it is an option now containers these are different everything I've been talking about so far has been about watering in the garden in the ground where you let the water run for a long time you don't have to do it very often containers nah I've watered these things constantly when it's hot outside maybe three times a day if I have to they're up on drip so for the most part I'm just pushing a button so they'll run automatically but I do have a lot of stuff out here that's not on drip where I just have to go through and make sure that they're being watered point where that water is coming off the bottom of the pot usually once water is coming out of the pot I'll usually count to like I don't know five six seven I have one two three four and then I usually just stop and move on to and then sometimes I will double back if I'm doing a very very very heavy watering but on those days where it's going to be just scorching hot outside I already know I'm probably gonna have to come back out and water again so once I see the water come out just you know give it a few seconds wait because I know I'm coming back out I'm doing it again that kind of heat if you have pavement or patio something like that you're near a structure they're probably going to need water more than once a day so I like to make sure they get it early in the morning and then I like to give it to them early in the afternoon and then I hold off and then generally not always things change sometimes but usually once the sun is off the plant then I go through and try and give another drink if I absolutely have to then I will come in between 2 and 4 p.m. and water but that's really the window for me and a lot of us where it's just not a great idea to risk getting water on top of the leaves the sun's really strong and you can scorch things so that's when I avoid it the most I want to make sure things are nice and moist leading up to that time and then you know maybe they'll get a small drink after that small the same where it needs to run at the bottom of the pot not just a little just want to make sure things are consistently moist that's not how I always do things right I'm talking about when we're pushing triple digits or really like for me it seems like in my backyard once we go over about 94 fahrenheit that's when I need to start doubling up my water and we hit triple digits then probably doing it three times a day and that just depends too the things that are further back into the I don't have to do that it's just the stuff that's out here in the sun and the plant too again cactus and succulents I'm not worried about them the same way I am something like my leucocasia colocasias hibiscus these want to stay consistently moist you gotta stay on top of that watering they used to make little umbrellas you could put over your plants I haven't seen those in a while but that might be an option I'll you know do a little google thing and pop it up here on the screen if I can find if nothing pops up it means I either forgot and didn't hear this part of it while I was editing I got distracted probably by my cat or you know it's just not out there but comment down below maybe you know I'm talking about it's an umbrella on a stake you can buy umbrellas and just cut the handle part off if they have the loopy handle and just pop them over your plants but remember those are plastic and they will radiate heat down so you want to make sure that there's a good gap between the umbrella and the plant like good a few feet worth of space for air to move around underneath there you can always do the big umbrellas this guy was 80 bucks from walmart I love it I think it's beautiful it's got that nice little pop top on it it's on a rolling stand which was not as cheap that was kind of pricey but you can get all different ones I had one that was more affordable a couple years ago it's like 45 and you can move the umbrella around if you need to it can make a big difference because for a lot of us know for me we will hit triple digits almost every single year but it's just a handful of times there have been some years where you know we'll have like two weeks over a hundred but that is not very often I think you know it's like once every 20 or 30 years that that happens maybe I kind of pulled that number out of my butt I feel like I hear people talk about the early 80s and saying well it's being just awful for that and then in my lifetime I can only think of I don't know because 2012 2015 and 2017 those were pretty awful years for heat one of those years it got so hot out here that cracked the patio went all the way so neither here nor there we're talking about how to keep the plants cool outdoor fans are an option I wouldn't recommend those for your plants but for you highly recommend it get an outdoor fan I know that's kind of like saying oh your car's too slow just go buy a Ferrari it's a it's an indulgent thing you spend a lot of time outside it's a purchase I don't think you'll regret and it's for blowing the bugs off of you too last thing and I don't think I have any way to show this because it's not something I keep on hand but it would be nifty to have well you can use this visual aid saucers now I don't like saucers on my plants not outside inside saucers are fine outside I just I don't know I don't either they become a problem however when it comes to the hot temperatures if you can get some saucers underneath your plants and make sure that those have water in them that can make a big difference too that's probably like the best tip I can give you for potted plants in the heat actually is go ahead and forget that rule about don't let your plants sit in standing water if you're having crazy hot temperatures put a saucer under there and let them sit in some water it's only going to be for a few days probably and usually they will pull that water up as long as they're pulling that water up so by evening if you don't see that water anymore you're good just make sure the next morning that you're watering heavily enough again that it's refilling that saucer so that they have all day to pull that back up right you know but again don't do it with your cactus your succulents your sansevierias you know we need to know our plants that's part of the problem here right it can get confusing because so many different things have different needs and requirements there are some plants where putting them in a saucer of water could kill them but you know where I am when I grow it's not gonna be an issue when we're looking at triple digit temperatures uh some people recommend misting I don't know I just don't think there's a point it can do more harm than good but I don't know maybe if you're doing it in the shade it might be okay mist does cool an area really really really well so you know it might be something to think about I wouldn't do anything that's going to be out in the sun I just don't see a reason to do it unless you can somehow keep those misters down lower so it's moving through the plant and not on top of it then you know that might be an okay thing or if you're able to keep it really consistent you know in air circulation you don't have too many humidity at night which I have to worry about mildew I don't know I mean I like misters don't get me wrong but you need to know your stuff and your climate and what's going to happen if you're going to do that all right hey tips tricks suggestions comment down below let everyone know what are some of the things that you do to help get your garden through those really hot days and uh yeah hope everybody's doing well having a great day great life and everything's just going absolutely beautiful