Garden Day: Gardening in the Heat

Gardening in the Heat 

by Julie Carpenter 

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It’s June and while northern gardeners are just reaching the dizzying peak of summer blooms, here in the south we’re rapidly creeping towards sunstroke territory.  My hydrangeas are already acting like drama queens. I firmly believe they droop their leaves a little lower if they see me looking at them. We’ve had a fairly wet early summer with afternoon thunderstorms that leave the garden feeling more like a steam bath than a garden, fogging up windows and the gardener’s glasses. As bad as it is, I have to remind myself that it will get worse. By July around here an afternoon thunderstorm will feel like the sauna on the devil’s back porch.

​You might think that high summer is not my absolute favorite time to garden. To be honest, I have to say that you’re more likely to find me working frantically in the spring, digging and weeding. Every bud and sprout feels like a gift from the fairies and I’m anxious to help them along. In the summer, on the other hand, I love the garden. Gardening not so much.
 
I love walking out in the early morning without a jacket and feeling the sun on my arms. There’s nothing like sitting out in the evening after the chill of air conditioning and having a cold beer or lemonade. I love the hot silky air at night, and the smell of hot earth and grass on a summer afternoon. I like the sound of airplanes as they buzz through the deep blue bowl of sky, reminding me that summer is (normally) the time for travel with family and friends.  There’s something about summer that brings back all the memories of childhood, lying in the grass with a cold dog’s nose pressed on your arm. Picking blackberries and honeysuckle. Blowing soap bubbles and looking for rainbows when the afternoon thunderstorm has passed. I can almost feel what it was like to be a teenager again, riding around in the old 1972 four door Chevelle full of friends, with windows that would never quite roll up all the way and no air conditioning, wind blowing my hair into indecipherable knots on the way to the lake.
 
Nevertheless, I do have gardening to do and I can’t spend all day every day contemplating life and taking things easy in the heat. So how does a southerner garden in the wicked heat and humidity? Here are some things that I find helpful.
 

1. Become a morning person. This one is hard for me, but the sooner you can get up the more you will get done without threat of sunstroke. Evenings here are nice, but not nearly as cool as mornings. Besides, by the time it’s six or seven in the evening, I’m ready to sit down and chill out.
2. Know where the sun is at all times. This is important anyway because you need to know where to plant things. But it’s also nice to sneak around behind Apollo’s back and weed and plant where he can’t see you. For instance, my front beds are baking in the afternoon, but the sun comes from behind the house in the morning, so if I can get out there before lunchtime, I can keep the beds neat without baking.
3. Hydrate. Dehydration will sneak up on you and you will feel sick and weak before you know it. Keep tabs on how much water you’re imbibing before the neighbors find you keeled over in the yard.
4. Use Sunscreen. If you are out, even in the morning, slather on some sunscreen. I got sun poisoning once and it’s no fun. If you’re not comfortable with chemical sunscreen look for sunscreen with physical blockers or cover up with clothing and a hat.
5. Enjoy the shade. If you can manage some sort of covered area in your yard, even if it’s just canvas stretched between posts or a large tree or cheap arbor, you will enjoy sitting in your summer garden. If you are out sitting in the yard, you see what needs to be done. If you don’t see it, you won’t do it, and you’ll be stuck going out with a machete in September to fight your way through the weeds.
6. Plant the right plant in the right place. You will spend way too much time watering if you choose the wrong locations for your plants. Although most plants are labeled for sun or shade, you may find that if you garden in the south you have to modify the instructions, especially if your plant is not from a local nursery. Full to part sun may very well translate to part sun to middling shade where I live. Beyond instructions, if you want to know if a plant is in the right place, ask it. Does it look like it’s wilting by noon? Get your shovel and move it to a shadier spot. (Exception: don’t ask hydrangeas – they’re drama queens. They usually require morning sun and afternoon shade.) Is it pale or yellowing and reaching out its poor stems to the sun? Probably needs to be a sunnier spot. You can cut down on watering, weeding, and heartache if you learn to plant things where they’re happy.

 
If you want a nice summer garden in which to contemplate life, unfortunately you’ll have to garden in the heat. However, you can make it a lot easier on yourself, and making things easier on ourselves is what we do best here at Sacred Chickens. Have any great tips for gardening where you are? We’d love to hear them.
 
 
 

Bio:
Julie Carpenter is the creator of the Sacred Chickens website.  She is dedicated to telling stories and making sure that indie writers and publishers have a way to be heard.  She uses narrative, her own and others’, to help interpret the world. She has a Master of Professional Writing from the University of Memphis, with an emphasis in Composition Theory. She wants to bend reality one story at a time.  Julie’s work has appeared in Fiction on the Web and will be included The New Guard. She is currently working on a novel.

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