Hello, and welcome back to my gardening series! This upcoming week, the big weather story is undoubtedly going to be the heat. It’s likely to be the hottest stretch of the entire summer, with nearly everyday from this Friday until the following Friday likely to see some spots reach or exceed 100ºF.
The temperatures speak for themselves…
To be honest, there really isn’t any good day this week to go outside and tend to your gardens. I would highly recommend tending to them early in the morning or late at night to avoid working in temperatures that could be greater than 100ºF with feels like temperatures even higher.
If you have no choice but to work during the heat of the day, be absolutely sure to stay hydrated, wear cool clothing, and wear sun protection. Also, if you do water during the day, make sure to not get the leaves wet, as the water will heat up and cause the leaves to burn.
Morning lows aren’t going to provide pretty much any relief to your plants, so if you have some that are less heat tolerant and can be brought indoors for a little while, this week is absolutely a good time to do that.
Around a month ago, I made a chart of heat stress vs. overnight low temperatures for another one of my gardening posts:
Your plants will be under major stress this week, as morning low temperatures are only forecasted to drop into the upper 70s and even lower 80s most days. As a result, your plants will continue to respire, producing energy which requires them to soak up water at all hours of the day.
Give your plants some extra water this week, they’ll need it.
Drought Update
“Drought” has made a slight comeback after it was completely eliminated from our area in May and June. After more than a month of nothing, we finally have some abnormally dry conditions according to the U.S. drought monitor in the Mobile/southeastern Mississippi area as well as in the southwest corner of Mississippi.
Since the end of June, things have been pretty dry around here. In Mobile, a little more than 4″ of rain has fallen, which is well below the normal of nearly 12″. In fact, we’re only a bit more than an inch above the record dry year. Keep that in mind when deciding how much water to give your plants this week.
Potted plants: water daily if shallow, every couple of days if deep
Raised gardens: water every day if your plants need lots of water, every couple of days if not
In-ground gardens: water every few days if plants are already established, everyday if not
