How to Keep Your Garden Alive During a Heat Wave
How to Protect Vegetables, Flowers, and Herbs During Extreme Summer Heat
I have spent most of my life in HOT places: Texas, California, and now Colorado. Heat waves aren’t pleasant, but they have been a part of my life forever. Heat waves can be incredibly stressful for both gardeners and their plants.
When temperatures climb into triple digits, the primary goal shifts from maximizing growth to learning how to keep plants alive in hot weather. These heat wave gardening tips will help your garden survive until conditions normalize.
Tips for Gardening During a Heat Wave
Here are my best tips for keeping your garden healthy during unseasonably hot stretches of the summer!
Taking Care of the Gardener
You cannot care for your garden if you succumb to the heat. Prioritize your own well-being and stay safe while practicing extreme heat plant care:
Stay Cool: Wear a hat—and better yet, make it a wet one. Soaking your hat in water before putting it on can keep your head significantly cooler. If you prefer a straw hat, tuck a damp cloth underneath it.
Hydrate and Rest: Keep a water bottle nearby and take frequent breaks. Dehydration can lead to headaches or heat stroke faster than you might expect. This waterbottle is my favorite. If I could afford to replace all of my others with this design, I would. It actually gets clean and keeps things SOOO cold!
Sun Protection: Apply SPF 50 every day and don’t forget your hands—wear gloves or apply sunscreen to them as well. Loose, long sleeves are excellent for sun protection while keeping air circulating. This is my favorite sunscreen that I wear every single day! And be sure to reapply!
Work Smart: Schedule your gardening tasks for early morning or evening. My back garden is shadier in the evening, so that is when I prefer to work.
Cool Down: Don’t be afraid to use water on yourself. Dunking your head, setting up a kiddie pool to sit in, or putting in a Stock Tank Pool makes a huge difference! Here’s my Stock Tank Pool Guide!
On the topic of wildlife and heat stress, Kate Bradbury published an agonizing account of what she is seeing in the UK during this terrible heat wave. You should give it a read:
Protecting Wildlife &Managing Mosquitoes
High heat stresses local wildlife just as much as it does our plants. Providing water is an act of kindness all the time and its especially important during heat waves.
Water Stations: Offer shallow dishes of water for birds and insects. Adding stones to these dishes gives insects easier access to the water without risk of drowning.
For more ideas, check out this post:
Mosquito Management: If you have water features or still-water bowls, you may worry about mosquitoes. The key is to understand their life cycle: mosquito larvae are air-breathers that need to hang from the water’s surface tension to breathe. You can easily prevent them from surviving by:
Using Mosquito Dunks: These contain BTI (Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis), a safe bacterium that targets larvae (like mosquitoes) but does not harm humans, pets, or most wildlife the exceptions being a few other fly species.
Keeping Water Moving: Fountains or waterfalls prevent larvae from attaching to the surface, causing them to suffocate.
Maintaining “Mosquito Buckets”: While some trends suggest using buckets with grass clippings to trap mosquitoes, these can backfire and create breeding grounds if not diligently maintained. If you are putting in a bucket, be sure you are maintaining it!
For more on managing mosquitos, check out this post:
Watering Plants During a Heat Wave
Identifying signs of heat stress in garden plants—such as wilting, drooping, or crispy leaves—is vital. If you catch it early, you can learn how to revive heat stressed plants by providing immediate deep hydration.
Water Deeply: When watering plants during a heat wave, let water soak deep into the soil. Shallow watering encourages shallow roots, which increases garden heat stress. This means more water less frequently.
Target the Roots: Avoid watering the leaves; focus your watering wand directly at the root zone where the plant needs it most.
Best Time to Water Plants During Hot Weather: Early morning or late evening is the best time to water plants during hot weather, as it reduces evaporation. Some thirsty plants may even require twice-daily summer plant care in extreme heat.
Prioritize: If you must choose, let the lawn go dormant—it will recover. Focus your resources on vegetables, newly planted items, tropicals, and trees. Yes, even trees need supplemental water during extreme heat events.
Mulching and Shade Cloth for Plants
Add Mulch for Extreme Heat: It’s not too late to mulch! Using mulch like woodchips or straw, helps protect plants from heat. Applying 2–4 inches of mulch for hot weather retains moisture and cools the root zone effectively.
Shade Cloth for Plants: Creating temporary relief with shade cloth for plants or old sheets can prevent scorched leaves. This is a great method to protect plants from heat in a vegetable garden in hot weather. Check out this post on Season Extenders for my DIY solution for my beds. Tent poles and shade fabric is a fabulous combination!
Critical Mistakes: What NOT to Do
Don’t Fertilize your Plants. A common question is: should you fertilize during extreme heat? The answer is no. Fertilizer encourages new growth, which increases the plant’s water needs and overall garden heat stress.
Don’t Plant or Transplant: Gardening in 100 degree weather is not the time to add new plants. If you must plant, fill the hole with water first to create a reservoir, but generally, wait for cooler weather for any new summer plant care additions.
Don’t Prune: Pruning can remove leaves that provide necessary shade and can trigger a stress response that pushes the plant to grow more, which is counter-productive in extreme heat.
How to Protect a Vegetable Garden During a Heat Wave
Knowing how to protect a vegetable garden during a heat wave is essential for a successful harvest. A vegetable garden in hot weather requires frequent harvesting to reduce the plant’s load.
How to Protect Tomatoes During a Heat Wave: To protect tomatoes during a heat wave, focus on consistent moisture to prevent blossom-end rot and cracking. Mulch is key, too. Check out how I use ollas with my tomatoes for more consistent watering here.
Preventing Sunscald on Vegetables: Preventing sunscald on vegetables is easier when using a shade cloth for plants to block the most intense afternoon rays.
Peppers and Eggplants: These varieties generally tolerate heat well, but they require consistent soil moisture and mulch to keep their root systems supported.
Keeping Container Plants Cool in Summer
Container plants in summer dry out much faster than those in the ground. Effective heat resistant garden tips for pots include moving them to shadier spots.
Water Frequently: Check your container plants in summer daily. Grouping them together can help with keeping container plants cool in summer by creating a small microclimate of humidity.
Saucers: Use plastic saucers under pots with drainage holes to allow the soil to wick up moisture.
The Kiddie Pool Trick: For a large collection of potted plants, group them in a shallow kiddie pool with a consistent level of water. Again, ensure the pots have drainage holes so they can wick the water up as needed. Remember to add pieces of a Mosquito Dunk to these trays to prevent larvae from developing.
Gardening during extreme heat is about maintenance and survival. By following these heat resistant garden tips, you can protect your landscape through any heatwave. Stay safe and keep gardening!
at the close…
Gardening during extreme heat is about maintenance and survival. By following these heat resistant garden tips, you can protect your landscape through any heatwave. Stay safe and keep gardening!
If you have questions, don't hesitate to ask!
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Happy Gardening!
Angela
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