going to be in the 100's for the next week..how to keep garden from dying?

my green beans have gotten fried already. Its been pushing 102+ here for more then a wk.   

i've been told to put shade cloth over the top of the garden. It supposedly helps alot

I cannot put shade cloth over an acre or two.  

We gut it out.  Mulching with straw helps shade the roots.  Planting in a fashion that allows plants to shade themselves, all these thing help.  But in the end, this summer is shaping up to be brutal.  I'm weary already and we've a long way to go.  We've got a huge investment in it, so giving up isn't an option for us.  Heavy sigh.

We are in the 100's + too, and no rain in sight.  I'm watering what I can, but doubt I will keep it all alive, already lost several plants.  I try to interplant to provide shade for more sensitive plants, but interplanting only can go so far w/ no rain and such hot weather!!!  After last year (extremely brutal) I tried finding plant varieties that said they were more heat or drought tolerant, we'll see how that goes???

Quote:

Originally Posted by deb516 

most of my peas have fried but ive been lucky with the green beans so far.  It was 109 yesterday and last i looked it was 112 where I am.  Im afraid to look again.  Ive been checking on my chickens every hour and giving them fresh water and changing out frozen water bottles and wetting down there pen but the garden i can only look on and hope it makes it until i can water again.  i cant wait until this hot spell goes away. love summer but not this...not too mention me and my husband are on our local volunteer fire department and in the past 2 weeks have had 11 fires. 

i'm in CO and we have at least a doz going.

my inlaws have been living with me for a wk because they've been evacuated 2 diff times in 1 wk.  They are right by the high park fire in larimer county

In hot weather I am always out in my garden watering. Water, water ,water. They need a lot of water to live.

Mine are dying too...  not good.  I am about to pick all the green tomatoes and just can them that way...sigh...I can only water so much.  We didn't get our rain barrel system built in time and our water bill is sky high...
 

It's important to keep the root at a happy temperature. You don't want the root to get cooked.

Heavy mulch with light colored material like straw. But if you have snail/slug problem make sure you sprinkle iron sulphate (OMRI approved) liberally to stop the snail/slugs. But don't let the chicken eat it. It isn't as toxic as sluggo and even though it says safe with pets and children. I wouldn't take a chance.

If you have a small plot you can do the following things.

1. Mulch heavily around the root to keep the soil temperature from getting too hot.

2. cover plants with shade net make sure it breathes so that you don't get a green house underneath. Do not use Agribon row covers as it isn't meant to keep the sun out or to let heat out.

3. You can even cover the ground between your plants with reflective film to shade the ground.

4. Water often to keep the soil from drying out.

5. make sure there is enough air circulation near the ground or you may get powdery milder or other fungal disease. It the vegetation is too thick you may have to thin it out by pruning.

6. to conserve water use drip irrigation system with drip emitters and with timers.

If its too hot, vegetable and fruit will not develop properly. Sometimes, it doesn't even set :(

We have an opposite problem in Ore. Record breaking rain fall in Mar. We almost broke the rainfall record for June. July is starting off on being cloudy, rain and temp in high 60's. Well where I live. Summer vegetables are stunted, melons may be a total loss... Managed to get parsnips to sprout (they need warm soil)  I've only had one other year where the weather has been this bad!! And I've been doing this for over 30 years!! no fruit on Apricot tree, only few cherries. Super wet winter has caused my peach tree to suffer severe peach canker. I'm struggling to save the tree. sprayed with copper based fungicide. Like to keep it organic(OMRI) but when things are really bad as this is I'll use non-OMRI product.

Only thing doing well are berries and few cool weather plants: snow peas, swiss chard, carrots and that's about it. Maybe I'll sprout broccoli, cabbage and hope the weather improves for the fall. Hope to recover somewhat with winter veggie and salad mix.

UNREAL!!!