How to Keep it Cool When the Garden Heats Up

These are the Dog Days of Summer for sure!  Here in Colorado, there are multiple 100+ degree days in this weekend’s forecast.  I’m not a fan of this heat and neither is my garden.  I’m hot and sticky and my plants are bolting left and right.  With a bit of extra care however, I do believe we’ll get through these scorching days.  Here are a few tips and tricks I’m using to get through this heat wave.

Water early.  Getting plenty of water is important for both you and your garden in this excessive heat.  The ideal time to water is between 3 and 5 am.  Watering at this time will allow water to thoroughly soak in before the hottest part of the day.  If you don’t have a timer for your sprinkler and just aren’t a morning person, watering after the sun goes down is okay too.  These times will help avoid losing moisture to evaporation.  However, watering at night may have your plants drying out before the day is through.  It is also important to keep an eye out for issues like powdery and downy mildew, as night watering may create favorable conditions for moisture loving diseases.

Hold off on the fertilizer until temps have dropped back down below 85 degrees.  Water loss due to the heat may cause an increase in fertilizer concentrations, which can ‘burn’ plants.  Additionally, fertilizing can cause plants to grow large disproportionately to their root system.  This can put undue stress on your plants as they struggle to take up enough water to keep up with the heat.

Take a break on cool season succession crops.  Now is the time to push the pause button on cool season crops like radish, peas, and lettuce.  These crops do not thrive in extreme heat.  Fear not though, by mid-august you should be able to consider planting another round of your favorite cool season for a fall harvest.  You can find a selection of our cool season varieties here, so you are ready when the time comes to plant again.

Not all my plants are suffering the heat so terribly though.  My tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, eggplant, squash, and okra are taking it all in!  The corn I companion planted with the squash is looking pretty happy too.  These are all great varieties to keep in mind if you’re looking for plants that will do well in this heat, as we see summers with more hot days.  In fact, a bit of heat stress may even make for sweeter tomatoes.

Don’t forget about your pollinator friends!  You can help pollinators by placing watering stations throughout your garden. Any small dish will do.  Adding a few rocks will give bees and butterflies a place to perch while quenching their thirst.  They will bee so grateful!

Though it may take a bit of extra effort to get my garden though this heat wave, I’m so grateful for my garden and it is worth every drop of sweat!  Did you know that plants actually cool the air around them.  They do this through transpiration, the process by which water evaporates through plants’ leaves.  Having the environment around your property be cooler can help your house stay cooler too!  Win Win!

Best of luck riding out this heat wave. Let us know how you and your garden are faring this summer.  In the wise words of every 8^th grade yearbook signer, “Stay cool!” 

Yes, stay cool my friends, stay cool.