How to Protect Your Garden From Extreme Heat This Summer

Temperatures are expected to be higher than ever this summer, with record-breaking heatwaves already hitting the Southwest United States. You might be prepared with ways to beat the heat, but what about your garden? 

Flowers, lawns, and outdoor foliage alike can shrivel under soaring temperatures. If your garden isn’t built to survive the heat, don’t give up just yet—there are a few things you can do to help protect your plants from heatwaves this summer.

Use a Shade Cloth

A shade cloth is essentially a suspended tarp you’ll place above plants you want to shade from the heat of the sun. These cloths will let some light through, so your plants will still be healthy in the shade, but will prevent the sun from burning plants or harming plants that can’t tolerate full sun.

Unlike covering your plants for a winter frost, you’ll need to make sure the cloth isn’t directly making contact with any part of your plant. This will ensure your plant is properly shaded without it burning.

Shade clothes can also enable you to cover multiple sections of your yard at once, providing all of your plants with a solution to stay cool this summer.

Grow Your Grass Out

Not mowing your lawn might seem like a counterintuitive summer activity, but it’s actually the perfect way to help your yard thrive. Tall grass retains shade and moisture, so the soil in your yard will be less likely to dry out under the hot sun. This will help keep your grass growing tall and lush, even without any maintenance.

If you absolutely must trim your lawn this summer, keep the length as long as possible. This will ensure your lawn won’t be directly exposed to hot temperatures during its period of regrowth after mowing. 

Change Your Watering Time

You might not be an early bird, but if you want your plants to thrive, you’ll have to be this summer. Watering your plants is, of course, one of the easiest ways to help them survive intense conditions. But when you water at times when the sun is high, your plants will lose some of the water to the hot soil. 

Watering during the morning when the sun isn’t directly over your plants will help them retain more moisture, giving your plants the opportunity to soak up all the water they can before the sun dries out the top few layers of soil later in the day. 

Apply Mulch Throughout Your Yard

Soil dries out easily during hot conditions. You might find that the top few layers are having trouble retaining water, lowering your plants’ chance of survival.

To combat this issue, you can add a layer of mulch to your yard. In winter, mulch acts as a heat insulator. But in summer, mulch can protect your soil from being exposed to the sun, helping to retain water (and helping your plants thrive).

Add a layer of mulch anywhere there’s soil to help your plants and soil beat the heat.

Incorporate Water Features

If you’re expecting long-term heat to continue affecting your garden, adding a water fixture might be one of the best things you can do for it. A moving water feature can help cool the air around it, so installing one near your plants is basically like giving them an air conditioner. 

Just make sure the water from your fixture is moving (such as a water fountain or rippling basin) to help decrease its evaporation rate and prevent bugs from moving in. To save as much water as possible, always opt for a fixture that recycles the water it uses. 

Bring Plants Indoors

Do you have potted plants living outside? Window boxes? Small raised garden beds? You may want to consider moving these inside. A garage or cool room inside your home can help your most delicate plants stay cool this summer, especially if you’re anticipating a heatwave to die down within a few days.

Even moving these plants to a covered area like a patio or porch can give them some extra shade and help them retain more water. Additionally, you could consider moving them to a side of the house that doesn’t get as much direct sunlight.

If you have a small plant (one that hasn’t rooted deeply outdoors yet) that you’re very attached to, you might even want to move it to a pot for the summer so that you can keep it indoors as needed. This is a time-consuming option, but may be worth it for gardeners who know the weather will severely limit a precious plant’s chance of survival. 

To increase your plant’s chance of survival, avoid damaging any root systems as you transplant it. Do not shake or move the roots, and avoid brushing off loose soil. Move it to a prepared pot with the right soil mix as quickly as possible. Water it thoroughly after it’s been replanted.

You won’t be able to replant the plant again for some time without risking killing it due to stress, so leave it in a cool space with an appropriate amount of sun until you’re ready to move it outside again for good.