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gamebird:
Other tips -
Pay attention to the sunlight patterns around your house. Specifically, where the shade of the house falls throughout the year. That’s a permanent shade.
Consider installing irrigation or drippers that serve only the plants you’re putting it on and not the entire patch of yard.
Similarly, water selectively - in the evening or morning (both have advantages) but not in the heat of the day.
Acknowledge the hottest part of the summer as a dormant period where all you’re doing is maintenancing the plants until the cooler fall growing season.
Avoid high nitrogen supplements leading up to the hottest part of summer. They encourage lots of leafy growth, which is an avenue for transpiration and loss of moisture.
Find a website that allows easy monitoring of recent rainfall. I use the Mesonet for Oklahoma. I assume other states have the same?
suntouchedraven:
How to garden when where you live is hot as balls
Hello. I am a southern california native, and we have entered the time of year where it will not drop below 90 degrees. This can make gardening pretty hard, but with years of incredibly specific “how to garden in 100 degree weather” building up in my brain, ive figured out many ways to make it easier, and I thought other people might appreciate some of this knowledge. So here we go.
Tip 1: get those bad boys established
If its not an annual, like wildflowers that will grow and die in a very short time, you best be planting your plants in winter or whenever your rainy season starts.
Plants are delicate babies when they are transplanted, but once their roots have a few months to establish they become significantly hardier. This also means by the time the scorching summer comes around, they will have had time to gradually adapt to your climate and will be able to survive much better.
Tip 2: native plants are your friends
Theres a reason theyre native. They specifically evolved to thrive in your specific hot as hell climate. Because of this, once their established you pretty much do not need to take care of them at all.
Around the fall this past year I bought a little manzanita (native to southern california), I stuck that bad boy in the ground, watered it maybe 5 times, and then totally forgot about it. Now summer is creeping in with its disgustingly hot fingers, and my little manzanita is thriving.
Trust that nature knows wtf its doing. Buy native plants.
Tip 3: get some trees y'all
When you live in a climate as hot as mine, your garden will greatly benefit with some shade.
If you get a non native plant that says it requires full sun, thats a lie. I have found that non native plants that say they need full sun end up absolutly thriving in partial shade. Plants that say they require partial shade/partial sun? Stick em in full shade. Theyll have the time of their lives.
Tip 4: ground cover ground cover gr-
NEVER leave your dirt naked. When u live somewhere thats hot as hell, naked dirt gets real bad real fast. Before you know it youll have a hard packed plain of useless dirt that cant even grow weeds. You wanna keep your dirt covered as much as possible and you can do this by using
Mulch: Wood chips. Pine needles. Leaves. Compost.
Ground cover plants: ive found ivy and periwinkle work pretty good here, as well as yellow clovers that appear only in spring. Other plants may do better or worse depending on where you live. My advice is to look at ground cover plants in other peoples yards who lives around you to see what will grow well.
A lot of groundcover plants may be slightly invasive(ivy) or just weeds(the yellow clover), but you can always rip them up if you want room to plant something else. But if you have nothing else growing in a spot? Then leave it. Best keep the soil covered then let it dry out in the sun.
Keeping your soil covered using mulch or ground cover plants will allow for much more insect life, and insects mean good soil that grows better plants.
It will also keep in moisture beautifully, so you may even be able to go a few days without watering during scorching hot weather.
Tip 5: start your seeds EARLY
This one is specifically about vegetables. If its not tomatos, peppers, or fall squash, you better be starting those seeds Early early.
Im talking january through march.
All your leafy greens and beets dont stand a snowflakes chance in hell growing from seed if its above 85. Certain types specifically need it to be cold for a period in order for the seeds tp germinate, but most of them just cant do it if its too warm.
Start them in mid to late winter so that by the time spring rolls around in full swing all these plants are mature and established and can succesfully survive the hot weather.
And thats all ive got for now. I hope this helps fellow hot climate gardeners and if you have more helpful info feel free to add on!
gamebird:
Other tips -
Pay attention to the sunlight patterns around your house. Specifically, where the shade of the house falls throughout the year. That’s a permanent shade.
Consider installing irrigation or drippers that serve only the plants you’re putting it on and not the entire patch of yard.
Similarly, water selectively - in the evening or morning (both have advantages) but not in the heat of the day.
Acknowledge the hottest part of the summer as a dormant period where all you’re doing is maintenancing the plants until the cooler fall growing season.
Avoid high nitrogen supplements leading up to the hottest part of summer. They encourage lots of leafy growth, which is an avenue for transpiration and loss of moisture.
Find a website that allows easy monitoring of recent rainfall. I use the Mesonet for Oklahoma. I assume other states have the same?
suntouchedraven:
How to garden when where you live is hot as balls
Hello. I am a southern california native, and we have entered the time of year where it will not drop below 90 degrees. This can make gardening pretty hard, but with years of incredibly specific “how to garden in 100 degree weather” building up in my brain, ive figured out many ways to make it easier, and I thought other people might appreciate some of this knowledge. So here we go.
Tip 1: get those bad boys established
If its not an annual, like wildflowers that will grow and die in a very short time, you best be planting your plants in winter or whenever your rainy season starts.
Plants are delicate babies when they are transplanted, but once their roots have a few months to establish they become significantly hardier. This also means by the time the scorching summer comes around, they will have had time to gradually adapt to your climate and will be able to survive much better.
Tip 2: native plants are your friends
Theres a reason theyre native. They specifically evolved to thrive in your specific hot as hell climate. Because of this, once their established you pretty much do not need to take care of them at all.
Around the fall this past year I bought a little manzanita (native to southern california), I stuck that bad boy in the ground, watered it maybe 5 times, and then totally forgot about it. Now summer is creeping in with its disgustingly hot fingers, and my little manzanita is thriving.
Trust that nature knows wtf its doing. Buy native plants.
Tip 3: get some trees y'all
When you live in a climate as hot as mine, your garden will greatly benefit with some shade.
If you get a non native plant that says it requires full sun, thats a lie. I have found that non native plants that say they need full sun end up absolutly thriving in partial shade. Plants that say they require partial shade/partial sun? Stick em in full shade. Theyll have the time of their lives.
Tip 4: ground cover ground cover gr-
NEVER leave your dirt naked. When u live somewhere thats hot as hell, naked dirt gets real bad real fast. Before you know it youll have a hard packed plain of useless dirt that cant even grow weeds. You wanna keep your dirt covered as much as possible and you can do this by using
Mulch: Wood chips. Pine needles. Leaves. Compost.
Ground cover plants: ive found ivy and periwinkle work pretty good here, as well as yellow clovers that appear only in spring. Other plants may do better or worse depending on where you live. My advice is to look at ground cover plants in other peoples yards who lives around you to see what will grow well.
A lot of groundcover plants may be slightly invasive(ivy) or just weeds(the yellow clover), but you can always rip them up if you want room to plant something else. But if you have nothing else growing in a spot? Then leave it. Best keep the soil covered then let it dry out in the sun.
Keeping your soil covered using mulch or ground cover plants will allow for much more insect life, and insects mean good soil that grows better plants.
It will also keep in moisture beautifully, so you may even be able to go a few days without watering during scorching hot weather.
Tip 5: start your seeds EARLY
This one is specifically about vegetables. If its not tomatos, peppers, or fall squash, you better be starting those seeds Early early.
Im talking january through march.
All your leafy greens and beets dont stand a snowflakes chance in hell growing from seed if its above 85. Certain types specifically need it to be cold for a period in order for the seeds tp germinate, but most of them just cant do it if its too warm.
Start them in mid to late winter so that by the time spring rolls around in full swing all these plants are mature and established and can succesfully survive the hot weather.
And thats all ive got for now. I hope this helps fellow hot climate gardeners and if you have more helpful info feel free to add on!