Beat the Heat: Keys to Summer Gardening

Summertime heat can make gardening tough. Learn how to help you and your plants cope with the heat so that hot summer days don’t slow your gardening down.

Summer is an exciting time for gardeners: loads of blooms, fruits, vegetables, and the perfect weather for grilling, dipping in the pool and entertaining outdoors. While summer promises plenty of days spent outside enjoying your garden, it also means that you need to make adjustments to protect yourself and the garden from seasonal hazards.

Some special attention and preparation will help your garden survive peak temperatures, scorching hot sun, little rain, and damaging insects, and will keep you from getting burned out in the process. Fortunately, it doesn’t take much work to combat summer garden stressors, just a little strategy and know-how. The following tips will help you get your garden healthy, strong, and able to stand up to anything this summer throws at it.

Water Wisely

When the weather is hot and dry, it can be tempting to water your beds more frequently. Resist the urge! Watering plants shallowly too often can cause a host of problems, from weak roots to root rot and mildew. The best watering strategy is to water deeply twice a week so that the water penetrates deeply into the earth. This both encourages deep root growth and provides sufficient water for several days. Adding a layer of mulch to the surface of beds will help to retain soil moisture by keeping the soil surface cooler, preventing evaporation.

Potted plants are much harder to keep moist in the heat of summer. Move pots to areas with a little shade, or cluster potted plants together so that larger plants cast a bit of shade on the smaller plants beneath. You can also mulch potted plants with either a fine mulch, small stones, or gravel (aquarium gravel works especially well). Water both potted plants and planting beds in the morning, rather than in the evening, to make sure that the leaves dry off and are less susceptible to fungus and mildew. If a potted plant becomes too dry to absorb water easily, place the pot in a bucket full of water and let it soak for a couple of hours.

Nourish Plants Well

Summer is a stressful time for plants, but it is also a time of high growth. Fertilizing your garden a couple of times over the course of summer will help keep them healthy and strong. There are several ways to fertilize, including top-dressing beds with an inch of compost in the spring, broadcasting granulated fertilizer over the surface of your lawn and garden, and fertigating. Fertigation is a combination of fertilizing and irrigation, done by hand (adding liquid fertilizer to a watering can or using a hose attachment) or by adding fertilizer to an irrigation system. This method takes care of feeding and watering at the same time, and ensures that the vital nutrients your plants need are delivered directly to the roots.

Annuals and potted plants will benefit immensely from a foliar feeding routine with a bit of liquid seaweed fertilizer or fish emulsion. Seaweed in particular can revive plants that are suffering from heat stress and it can help to make plants more resilient to heat in the first place, preventing heat damage. Apply these treatments every couple of weeks to increase bloom size and frequency and to help plants beat the heat.

Get an Early Start

When summer is at its peak, the last thing you want to be doing at noon is working on your garden. It’s just as well that the best time to water is early in the day, too. Morning is the perfect time to assess your garden to make sure that all is well. Any drooping plants in need of water can get a nice, deep drink, and any leaves being attacked by aphids or other pests can be safely treated before the sun reaches its peak. Many plants will naturally droop in the hottest part of the day—it’s their way of conserving energy. Watering or treating leaves in the heat can burn leaves and damage plants, so avoid it at all costs!

Trim and Tidy

During the warmest months, all plants will go through a growth spurt, including weeds. Catch weeds and pull them when they are small and your plants will thank you—weeds steal the nutrients and water your plants need. While you’re at it, pinch away damaged, dead, or diseased growth on any of your plants to encourage strong, healthy growth. Summer is also an ideal time to shape shrubs or trees that are becoming bushy and unwieldy. Cutting off spent flowers, or deadheading, helps your plants direct their energy towards growing more blooms and will ensure a longer-lasting flowering season. Last but certainly not least, pinching herbs (and some ornamental plants) encourages strong, bushy growth. Pinch right above the join where two leaves come together, and two stems usually grow back to replace the one.

Protect From Pests

Everyone loves to hang out in the garden during summertime, including uninvited pests. Morning is the best time to garden in summer for many reasons, but one of the top ones is that early morning is the perfect time to catch insect pests off-guard. During a morning inspection, look at the undersides of leaves to check for pests. Aphids and insect eggs can be crushed by hand or sprayed with a little soapy water. The sooner you treat pests, the healthier your garden will be.

Care for Yourself

Gardening in the summer can be hard on you, too. If you must work in the garden past morning, wear sunscreen or a long-sleeved shirt and a hat. Even on an overcast day, it’s far too easy to get sunburned while you’re busy focusing on gardening. Drink plenty of water, and listen to your body so that you don’t get overheated. Getting an early start means that by noon, you’ll be ready to pull up a lawn chair in the shade, kick back, and enjoy the garden you’ve worked so hard for.