Summerizing Your Southern Garden

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Posted by @dave on
Up north, they winterize their gardens. Down in the south, we summerize them! Among the many pleasures of gardening in the south are long growing seasons and comfortable winters, but our long and hot summers can be brutal for us and our plants. Here is some advice on dealing with drought and heat in our gardens.

Plentiful rainfall, cool nights, and warm days make springtime gardening effortless. When our brief winter slows to an end, and the trees turn green with fresh new leaves, the optimism and excitement of spring gets us outside and gardening. This is a prime time of year to install new plants or transplant existing ones, and they quickly establish and start putting on new growth. When the summer gets started, however, the rains slow, the heat kicks in, and newly planted plants struggle to survive. On our farm, with few exceptions, we don't transplant anything in June, July or August. This makes the spring plantings a bit of a race, but it also means we don't lose new plants to heat.

Photo by dave
Don't underestimate the negative power that hot soil can have on your plants. When the soil is exposed directly to the sun, it quickly heats up and bakes all day long. Night time temperatures are not cool enough to cool it, so day after day the soil gets hotter and hotter. The solution here is to mulch all your gardens, including your vegetables. Wood chips are excellent and attractive, but leaves, hay and even dead weeds can also serve as fine mulches. The mulch shades the soil, preventing the sun from heating it and drying it out. Pull back a deep layer of mulch and you'll be surprised at how cool and moist the soil is.

Before laying down your mulch, though, consider adding a drip irrigation system. For much less than the cost of an automatic sprinkler system, you can run drip lines around your garden, and then cover these with the mulch. Running on a regular schedule throughout summer, the drip lines will moisturize the soil under the mulch and provide the water your plants need. There is so much to say on drip irrigation that an entire article could be devoted to that subject alone. Smart gardeners in Texas rely heavily on drip to get us through our summers!

The sun provides the light our plants need to grow, but too much light can be a curse. When it's 90 degrees outside, go stand in the afternoon sun for a few minutes and see how you feel. Now go sit in the shade under the porch and you'll find that although the temperature hasn't changed, the air is comfortable and tolerable. Our plants have the same reaction, and being roasted in the sun all day isn't good for most plants. For tender plants, you can hang shade cloths on overhead structures. They sell shade cloths that block varying percentages of sunlight, and these can have a huge impact on the health of your plants during the worst parts of summer.

Speaking of shade, many gardeners have added shade sails to their backyard gardens. These colorful and attractive shading structures are made of strong fabric, reinforced with cables or ropes along the hems. They can attach to the house on one side and to posts out in the yard. A little shade can go a long way toward healthier plants!

Even in the hottest part of summer, the eastern morning sun provides gentle light to your plants, but once lunchtime is over the sun turns hot and blazing. Plants on the west side of your house will receive the brunt of this punishment, to their detriment. The more tender plants, therefore, should be planted on the east side of your house, where they will get shaded from late afternoon on.

Some annual plants just quit early in the heat. They grow, fruit quickly, and then wither. You can keep things going by continuously sowing new seeds of summer squash and cucumbers. Plants like tomatoes will stop producing entirely once the temperatures stay above 90 degrees for extended periods of time, but don't despair! The plants won't die, they'll just take a break. So leave them where they are, and when the cooler temperatures of fall return, they will once more start blooming and will produce a second crop of tomatoes.

Photo by Calif_Sue
Look for plants that are well suited to our southern gardens. Don't try to grow lilacs and peonies! Instead grow Vitex 'Shoal's Creek', crepe myrtles, roses, and daylilies. Did you know that there are almost 80,000 varieties of daylilies, and they are some of the easiest plants to grow in our hot summers? In our famous drought of 2011, our daylilies performed better than nearly anything else. Sub-tropical plants like bananas, cannas and elephant ears all grow effortlessly in Texas, given good soil and adequate water, and they provide such a lush look to your landscape! For roses, look for the Earth-Kind Roses, which thrive on neglect.

The plant database at All Things Plants lists thousands of perennials that are suitable for xeriscaping (gardening for dry conditions). Use resources like that to help plan your garden, and consider a plant's needs before you buy it.

Prefer plants suited to your area, mulch, drip irrigate, provide protection from the sun, and don't plant during the wrong time, and you can't fail!

 
Comments and Discussion
Thread Title Last Reply Replies
A couple of tips on drought and heat by midnight21 May 16, 2014 9:41 AM 5

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