Last summer the area where I live was surrounded by wildfires. We were so lucky not to be affected by them. The heat and dryness were unbelievable!
And I had a fairly successful garden. As a relatively new gardener, that was quite an achievement.
This year is supposed to be even hotter. I’ve been preparing this year’s garden, and have developed a few strategies to help it cope with the heat.
The first one is to have no exposed soil.
The year before last, I found some sorrel growing in another part of the yard, so I dug some up and planted it in one of my beds. Sorrel is delicious and the spear shaped leaves are beautiful. The following year — last year — it had taken over the beds!
So I planted around it and, if I needed more planting space, I pulled it up and ate it or replanted or just composted it. It pulls up easily, and plants readily manage to grow between it.
I also planted daikon radishes last year with the intention of making kimchi. But I lost my taste for kimchi and let the radishes go to seed. And developed a taste for the greens. Now it, along with the sorrel, are all over my garden. Daikon is a long white radish that also has the benefit of aerating the soil. And if I feel like making kimchi again, I won’t be short of daikon radishes.
The other thing I did was put poles around my beds so I can drape cloth over them when it’s too hot in the summer, and provide shade.
What adjustments are you making to your gardening techniques to protect them from the heat? Sharing tips could benefit all of our gardens. I look forward to reading yours.
Happy gardening!
Having moved to a house with no garden space, I now garden exclusively in planters and pots on our deck. Cold frames are a great addition to lengthen the growing season at both ends. Did you know that sorrel is also a good companion plant for others that like acidic soil, such as strawberries and tomatoes?
I am a fumbling gardener. A couple years ago I added a nice little greenhouse to the back of my workshop. My garden space is quite small but I raise lots of seedlings in the greenhouse which I provide to a local food bank. My county has about 40% living at poverty wages (Go, USA!) due to it being a tourist economy and conversion of many rental properties to AirBNB.
We have an amazing volunteer program here called the Door County Seed Library, which provides free vegetable, herb and flower seeds through the eight libraries in the county. The program was started up a couple years before the pandemic by a wonderful woman. The program came through that in good shape.
Two years ago we began a free gardening kit giveaway providing basic gardening hand tools, seeds, several vegetable seedlings, a tomato cage with stakes and a big bag of planting soil. Local merchants donate some of the materials and the local United Way program provides much of the funding.
I think the Seed Library is a model other communities could use. Here is a link to the program's website and I am sure the woman who began it all would be willing to talk with folks who might want to try a similar program in their communities: https://doorcountyseedlibrary.org/
Given what is happening with the climate and the WW III we are in, home and community food production will be essential to self and community care. Pay attention to a growing trend of efforts to limit and even ban home gardening. There are large dark economic forces at work.