Isn't the heat affecting your plants

[WorldsBestMom]

I don't know but I have to be watering my plants constantly. I may have to get some one to look after my plants when I go on vacation.

[cschick]

I tend to have things planted at this time of year which do okay without too much water. It's been in the 90s recently, and I've been getting out there to water every two days? The shade from the insane pumpkin plants seem to be keeping everything damp.

I have a soaker hose and water timer I put out when we go on vacation.

[koofie]

I bought a drip irrigation system since I was going on vacation for a week. Once I came back, we had nearly a week of 100+ degrees (and no rain) and my plants did great. They were watered early in the am and I upped the amount of time watered daily from 12 minutes to 20; it's cooled off now so I need to remember to move it back to 12 minutes!

[purplegirl]

Originally Posted by cschick

I tend to have things planted at this time of year which do okay without too much water. It's been in the 90s recently, and I've been getting out there to water every two days? The shade from the insane pumpkin plants seem to be keeping everything damp.

I have a soaker hose and water timer I put out when we go on vacation.

I need a water timer for when I'm away. Where did you get yours from?
thanks

[koofie]

Originally Posted by purplegirl

I need a water timer for when I'm away. Where did you get yours from?
thanks

I bought mine from Lowes. It was with the drip irrigation stuff.

[purplegirl]

Originally Posted by koofie

I bought mine from Lowes. It was with the drip irrigation stuff.

Thanks

[palmgal]

We put in a drip irrigation system as well and it is doing fantastic, the plants have weathered the 100 degree weather just fine!

[emnic77]

We don't go anywhere. We have been much hotter than normal, and the garden is flourishing. We are watering a lot, mostly from collected rain barrels. We have a sprinkler system but haven't ever used it. Last year was cold and rainy through july so it's nice to finally have a god growing season this year.

[HeatherAtHome]

Ok, I hate to admit it but we had a stretch of hot weather with no rain for about 6-8 days and I didn't water the garden. It flourished. Maybe it would have grown better with the water but overall it seemed to like the heat. Towards the end I almost gave in but saw we were having a big rain that night.

We don't have an outdoor hose yet (DH is supposed to put it in sometime...) and out garden is pretty far from the house. I still remember all the watering I was doing when I planted the garden and wasn't too enthusiastic over the idea of carrying bucket after bucket of water again.

But I was in the garden daily, watching for signs of stress, everything looked fine. We were getting a heavy dew overnight.

I like the idea of a timer.

[Alyantavid]

My plants are loving the heat! We had a really cold, wet spring, so now that it's hot, everything's doing really well. I do soak them really well at night, but they're just doing great.

I do have someone come and water if we'll be gone more than the day.

[cschick]

Originally Posted by purplegirl

I need a water timer for when I'm away. Where did you get yours from?
thanks

We got ours from Home Depot maybe a decade ago. There's probably better ones out there now.

[emnic77]

Originally Posted by HeatherAtHome

Ok, I hate to admit it but we had a stretch of hot weather with no rain for about 6-8 days and I didn't water the garden. It flourished. Maybe it would have grown better with the water but overall it seemed to like the heat. Towards the end I almost gave in but saw we were having a big rain that night.

We don't have an outdoor hose yet (DH is supposed to put it in sometime...) and out garden is pretty far from the house. I still remember all the watering I was doing when I planted the garden and wasn't too enthusiastic over the idea of carrying bucket after bucket of water again.

But I was in the garden daily, watching for signs of stress, everything looked fine. We were getting a heavy dew overnight.

I like the idea of a timer.

The only thing I would caution with that (having been there, done that) is that inconsistent watering can wreak havoc with the output. I had issues with small, not juicy tomatoes, woody carrots, and so on due to my "if it's not wilted, don't water" frame of mind. Needless to say, I make sure everything is watered daily now. Of course, you're in a different area so your ground might be more saturated or what not, but just relaying my experience

[JamieCatheryn]

I had a friend come water the garden while I was on vacation, it still suffered badly. 1 nice squash plant died and another is on it's last legs, the tomatoes have dried brown leaves, the green beans stopped growing fruit. He was supposed to harvest while I was gone too but didn't, so we're having giant zuccini with dinner tonight.

[koofie]

Originally Posted by JamieCatheryn

I had a friend come water the garden while I was on vacation, it still suffered badly.

That was my reason to DH for why I needed a drip system! All of my family was out of town at the time, and I didn't want to ask someone else to water them, juts in case it didn't work out. I've been asked to water my mom's garden while she was gone, and it was no fun having to stay there while the sprinkler ran for hours and I got 'squito bites.

[SuburbanHippie]

Our plants have been flourishing in the heat. After last year's 60-70 degree "summer," I won't be complaining about the heat.

I've been watering every day usually, but just not a lot at once. I'm sick of carrying the water from the rain barrel to the garden. We (stupidly) put the gate to the garden on the opposite side and now it's quite a lot of walking back and forth.

I think what is really helping my garden keep moist is using several inches of grass clippings in the garden. Plus, no weeds anymore. It's the best thing ever!