Keeping A Garden From Getting Hot and Bothered
How to keep your plants going in the heat

June showed us that summer 2024 is bringing the heat, with July expected to go above and beyond. This should be great for your garden, right? You’re no longer worrying about if a frost will come through overnight, or that you won’t get all of your plants in the ground in time. Your plants should just grow and be happy already, right? Don’t you worry! (about not worrying?) Gardening in the heat comes with its own set of trials and tribulations, so we put together a collection of tips to keep your garden growing strong now that the weather is heating up.

Keep Your Garden Flourishing in the Heat of Summer

1. Go out in the early morning, or at dusk – I know it’s a crazy concept, but when the sun is out, it can get really hot. The sun is usually at its peak strength from around noon to 3 pm. If you plan on working in the garden, you will likely get exhausted, burnt, and dehydrated much more quickly than when the sun is lower in the sky. Additionally, water is more likely to evaporate in the middle of the day, instead of soaking into the ground to give your plants a good drink. Plus, what sounds nicer than starting or ending your day while sitting in your garden and watching your veggies grow?
2. Keep your weeds in check! – I will admit I am terrible at this. Sometimes I think a weed looks pretty! Sometimes I don’t know if it’s a weed or not and I let it grow to see what happens! But most of the time, I get distracted and/or busy and suddenly the garden is overrun with weeds. I would recommend getting to know the weeds you see most in your yard and what the best way to kick them out may be. Creeping Charlie/Creeping Jenny are easy to pull up. Burdock always looks like rhubarb until burdock becomes huge, spreads throughout your yard, and might need a chainsaw to cut down (only slightly kidding). There are many tricks out there from dumping boiling water onto the weed, to spraying a combination of dish soap and vinegar on the plants that will help in your fight against the weeds. Not sure what that plant is growing in the corner? A plant identification app like this one can help. (The interface is slightly annoying, but it gets the job done.)
3. The same goes for pests! – Rabbits, squirrels, bugs, and slugs – they all seem to love eating your precious veggie plants and completely ignoring the weeds. These pests seem to be different from house to house and often, it can be difficult to find who the actual culprit is. Gardening books like The Vegetable Garden Pest Handbook can be a great resource for starting your sleuthing and getting help finding ways to get pests out of your garden naturally, from using hot sauce to releasing beneficial bugs into your yard, like praying mantises! The best tip is to watch your plants, see how they’re being affected, and create a plan of attack.
4. Watering is serious y’all – Remember when I mentioned that watering in the middle of the day can lead to that water evaporating before it can absorb into the plants? While doing this can cool plants down on those super-duper hot days, you got to make sure that your veggies are getting a good drink. This is where that dedication comes in. I typically water my garden every. dang. day. If I don’t get home until 9 pm, I still make sure to at least get the sunniest spots of my garden watered. Just like you can feel dehydrated after a hot day, your plants can start to droop and wither when the temps get into the 85° and higher region. Make sure you focus on watering the roots instead of the leaves (watering leaves, especially in the middle of the day, can burn them!), and monitor potted plants for proper drainage, as they can tend to get water-logged easily.
5. Plants produce food, but they also need food – A good compost and/or fertilizer can go a long way. If you’re not sure why your plants aren’t growing as much as they should be, it might be your soil. Different plants thrive in different types of dirt and benefit more from different fertilizers. Do some research on what the best type of plant food works for what you’re trying to grow and be sure to give your garden a mid-summer boost.

As always, take a moment to appreciate how much your plants have grown and changed in just a few months! What has thrived? What hasn’t survived? What are you most excited to harvest this year? All of these feelings are an important part of the gardening journey. Send us a message about your garden updates.

*This is the third part of a series The Workbench will be releasing regularly throughout the Spring, Summer, and Fall of 2024 on our trials, successes, and failures of an amateur urban garden.