As we are all aware San Diego is dealing with yet another heatwave and the effects of continued higher than normal temperature can play havoc in your garden. It doesn’t matter if you are in Point Loma, Pacific Beach, Del Cerro or North Park the higher temps effect us all. 

Today I wanted to discuss a few ways we can reduce the stress our gardens face during times of higher than normal temperatures. In a future post I will also discuss ways we can design gardens to handle a warming planet. 

When a heatwave strikes we need to be mindful of how these higher temps and often drying winds effect our gardens. One way to help relieve some plant stress is to water your garden in the morning when temperatures haven’t risen yet. This allows the water to seep into the soil and cool the root zone before evaporation takes hold. Another effective strategy is to give you plants a quick cool shower in the middle of the day, this is less about watering the plant and more about lowering the surface temperature of the leaves to reduce internal water loss. 

Shade is another way to help reduce the stress plants face during times of extreme heat. Even if your plant is a full sun plant, higher than normal temps can still be difficult for the plant to handle. Moving the plant or adding supplemental shade can help the plant cope. Supplemental shade can come in all forms from simple umbrellas or sunshade/ sun cloth to more elaborate built structures. Not only do such measures help with the heat they can also shield them from the drying winds often associated with heatwaves. 

Try not to mow or prune plants during times of high stress, the additional leaf blade can help shade itself and the root zone aiding it ability to survive. Also be very careful about adding any type of growth fertilizer to your plants. Allowing the plant to focus its energy on deeper roots and over all stress survival is more important than the plant putting on additional growth. Some fertilizer and foliar sprays designed too improves the plants stress tolerance and the ability for the soil to retain water can be effective if applied prior to a heatwave, but that can be hard to plan for. 

If you would like additional information please call Cleator Landscape Design at 619 917 3644