Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Hotter Than Hot!




I can't believe it! Yesterday was 20-degrees hotter than Sunday and it's only April 21st - 105F! At noon time the tomato plants and pepper plants in the raised garden bed that gets the most sun were wilting. Even though the soil was still moist I gave them a generous watering and within minutes they were perked up again. I draped some shade cloth over that side of the bed, and draped shade cloth above the lettuce in bed #2 also. Hopefully it will cool down in a day or so because it is way too early to have temps in the 100's. Last Christmas my husband gave me an oven thermometer (even though I already had a good one). I read in a garden blog that these could be used in the garden to read the soil temperature. So I dug it out of the drawer and started testing the soil in all the SFGs and also all of the containers. In two of the beds that get about an hour of sun less than the bed #1 the temperature was around 79-80F. In bed #1 the temps were between 89-90F. I was shocked when I read the soil temperatures in the containers - 94-100F! Poor little flowers and herbs. Now I've got to think of what to do to keep them cooler. One of the things I will be doing is keeping the large watering can filled and stored in the kitchen - because when the temps stay in the high 90's and up the water in the ground stays very hot and I don't think that is going to help cool down the plants. Anyone have any good ideas for keeping cool in the hot desert sun?