Heatwave Gardening: 8 Tips for Gardening in The Heat

Year after year North American gardeners take on the ultimate gardening challenge… the weather. From cold, wet Springs to hot, dry Summers, there’s a wide variety of conditions we must be prepared for to have successful lawns and gardens. As Summer starts to rear its head, your young plants can be vulnerable to the heat and lack of moisture. We’ve put together 8 tips for ensuring your lawn and garden survive any heatwave that comes your way.

1. Fill Your Gardens with Healthy Soil

Since you’re here on BigYellowBag.com, we hope you already know the importance of having high quality soil in your gardens, but let’s reiterate some benefits. Our Black Garden Soil has been engineered to grow everything better. It has an excellent balance of moisture retention and drainage that under normal gardening conditions will ensure your plants get the right amount of water and nutrients. It’s also packed with organic matter, which is essential for processing soil nutrients and making them bioavailable for whatever you’re growing. Especially when during a heatwave, you want to make sure your gardens have the absolute best soil available to keep things growing healthy and strong.

2. Water, Water, and MORE Water During a Heatwave

It’s essential during the extreme heat to stay on top of watering your lawn and garden. Built-in irrigation systems are ideal for managing your yard’s hydration, but if you don’t have an elaborate setup, the classic hose-attached sprinklers are fantastic for evenly distributing water across your lawn and garden. Water deeply and less frequently than you would under normal temperatures and try to water in the morning to keep evaporation to a minimum.

3. Use Mulch as an Insulator

Mulch is a fantastic way to help your garden combat extreme heat (and the cold for that matter). Use a quality mulch and add a 2-3 inch layer over all your garden beds. This layer will help keep your garden cool in the summer heat, and it will also help to alleviate evaporation concerns by ensuring further moisture retention. An added benefit of mulch is weed suppression, which is also important when fighting against a heatwave!

4. Just Keep Weeding Through the Heatwave

This may seem like a no-brainer, but yes you have to keep on top of weeds during a heatwave. Not only are weeds an eye-sore, but they can also drain valuable resources away from the plants you WANT to be growing. Weeds will compete with the plants in your garden for water, sunlight and nutrients. If you keep up with pulling weeds throughout the heatwave, your plants will be able to utilize all the resources from your garden soil without competition.

5. Pruning and Deadheading Are Essential

It’s easy to fall into the mindset that “it’s too hot out for gardening, I’m sure our plants will be fine!” when temperatures start to get sweaty… But neglecting your garden at this point is the last thing you want to do! We do suggest doing any gardening activities in the early morning or evening to avoid the hottest times of the day, but you still have to tend to a couple things. Prune any summer-flowering shrubs and deadhead your flowers to encourage continued blooming and to ensure your garden looks neat and tidy!

6. Slow-Release Fertilizers Can Help in a Heatwave

This tip is a major one for heatwave lawn care. Using a slow release fertilizer ahead of a rain (or before watering your lawn) will work wonders on your turf. Ensure that you use a well-balanced fertilizer that will provide your lawn with nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium to support your lawn in every way possible. Fertilizer can also be effective in the garden to help your plants through the heat. Be sure to consult with your local fertilizer supplier to ensure you’re providing your lawn and garden with the nutrients it needs.

7. Keep an Eye Out for Pests and Diseases

Unfortunately, the heat and drought aren’t the only things your garden could be fighting with right now… Pests and diseases are opportunistic, and when your plants are weaker due to a heatwave, an opportunity is presented. Be sure to continually monitor your lawn and garden for possible pests and diseases. They will further weaken your garden, which is something you can’t afford during a heatwave. Be sure to seek a remedy to any pests or diseases as soon as possible to mitigate heatwave damage!

8. Choose Drought Tolerant Plants

Okay, this last tip may be a little late for you to put into use for this season, but if you’re really struggling with hot, droughty conditions in the garden, start thinking about some drought tolerant plants you could use next season to ensure an easier transition from Spring to Summer. For drought tolerant vegetables, think about beans, peppers and summer squash. Some flowers that perform well in a heatwave are lavender, echinacea (AKA coneflowers), and lamb’s ear. There’s many other options for drought tolerant plants, so start thinking about that for next season.

As much as a heatwave can be a frustrating obstacle in the life of a North American gardener, we hope these tips help you all in the battle. Some effects of the heat are unavoidable, but we’re confident that if you put these pointers to use, you’ll come out of this heatwave with a much healthier and happier garden.