How to Grow a Thriving Vegetable Garden in Hot Climates | 9 Techniques for Success

Have you ever found yourself giving up on your garden in the face of super high temperatures? Don't! We've got you covered with 9 techniques that will help keep your fruit and vegetable garden healthy and productive throughout the summer season.

We'll talk about techniques ranging from succession cropping to selecting strategic vegetable varieties to proper watering and even how to make shade anywhere in your garden.

Let's get into it!

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#gardening #homesteading #growyourownfood

[shay]

This year I tried something a little different for shade, biodiversity, etc. I planted nasturtiums strategically throughout the 40' raised bed. I also let many dandelion volunteers remain (I've just been topping them so they don't get very tall or flower). Meanwhile I've got little sprayer heads that are twice a day for 2 minutes blanketing the entire surface of the soil. Keeping the shady weedy plants happy and seems to encourage more worms in the soil too. Turns out nasturtium and dandelion are nitrogen fixers and pest traps so maybe they're serving triple duty. The nasturtium flowers are bringing in tons of pollinators too. So far this year the garden is super happy, but we'll see how it handles the triple digits...

[latriciacagle]

I work in a garden center in the SW desert. I constantly see people who have moved from other parts of the country and try to garden in the same way they used to. They’re perplexed when everything dies. “Full sun” is one of the common misconception of planting in our climate. In general “full sun” means morning sun/afternoon shade. In areas with full sun, I use 50% shade cloth or patio umbrellas placed to provide afternoon shade. Many plants can take the heat but not the intense UV light and end up with severe burns of foliage and trunks. Another product I like is IV Organics paint for tree trunks. It can be diluted and used as a foliage spray. It acts as “sunscreen” for your trees and plants.

[jo-annjewett]

Great info! I am zone 9b south Texas on the Gulf. July and August are brutal.

[jasminesmith]

Also remember to lean into growing things that thrive in heat. During a time when my tomatoes stopped producing because it was so hot, my tomatillos and peppers were going crazy and loving it.

[bobcaldwell]

100% on mulching containers. Growing peppers in Southern California, it was never necessary as it never got all that hot. We moved to Western Maryland, and holy cow! I'd water in the morning and they'd be droopy by 2pm. I also used to mix in perlite for tomatoes and peppers in SoCal, but no longer do that in MD

[tmorrison]

You are seriously quickly becoming one of my new fave YouTube gardeners- your videos are so helpful esp because i live in the high desert extreme climate of Eastern Washington and most gardener channels do not have the no rain extreme sun, even this video gave me some tips i have never heard before & ive been gardening for years! Thank you thank you thank you for representing us *hot* gardeners 😅

[mendynoma]

I have used sheer curtains and fabric remnants from local rummage sales as shadecloth, using clothespins to secure them to baling twine rigging. Our local school is using shredded office paper as deep mulch around some of the more mature vegetable plants and it seems to be quite effective. Thanks for sharing what you have learned with the rest of us!

[ourrockydreamontheelephant]

We've found placing plants in pits help a lot. Thank you for sharing.

[CarrieNita]

I live in NE Alabama, zone 7b. We only occasionally hit triple digit temps. I have always pruned the bottom leaves off my indeterminate tomatoes. It hasn't stopped blight. To change up this year, I am planting an early crop of determinate tomatoes. Then, I am growing an indeterminate crop later.

[jenniferlroberts]

I grow my cool crops in part shade. Morning sun, afternoon shade, then late evening sun. It works for me.

[victorp.garcia]

Your comments are extremely useful and sensible. Thanks so much for sharing your expertise. I live in a very hot country and was pruning my tomatoes as suggested in other videos. Now I know this is wrong, or at least it depends on other factors. Your tips are truly amazing, my friend.

[karliekramer]

This was an incredibly helpful. I'm definitely trying millionaire eggplant, sun gold tomatoes and corinto cukes next season. I'm often frustrated by gardening channels that aren't hot-weather specific that suggest techniques and vegetables that just aren't feasible here in Central Texas. Cheers!

[HamzaTheHistorian]

This is excellent advice for a gardener like me in Atlanta, GA, but I am from Minneapolis, MN, so I have no frame of reference to garden here.

[janellenelson]

Wow! I’ve been searching for information on this. I moved to Oklahoma a couple years ago and it’s brutal. I tried to push the same plants throughout the whole season and now I know that’s not possible at all. Im going to try that pruning tip, it really does make sense.

Seriously was so so helpful, thank you!

[carolinekloppert]

Thank you for your informative reply. We only have rain in winter. If we're lucky ! In my childhood it would pour for weeks on end. Now no longer. likely to rain from April through to September, our winter. Thus far we have a shower or two per week. That is sufficient to stop having to water !

[RonAndJaneThailand]

Great tips! Here in our tropical climate we deal with two real seasons. Hot and dry (8 months) and hot and wet. I grow most food in-ground but have about 20% in pots. Thanks

[trenomas]

Solid video, but I cannot stress seed selection enough. Finding heat hardy varieties, blending them together and collecting your own landrace of locally adapted seeds is the only way we will be able to garden into the unsteady future.

[carolinekloppert]

Backing you... your hot weather tips very good and real based on experience !.. In our odd climate, northern full sun is our semi to light shade, or placing beds to get sun for a few hours in the morning only. I line all my raised beds with plastic or they would desiccate, as they are 30cm high. Sunk in-ground beds rather than raised beds gave me my first successful season of leaf vegetables (chard). I dug out the beds, and placed the soil on the paths. The bed was in the shade of a building most of the day, but with open sky overhead in high summer. In winter it was a bit too dark. Grow a lot of subtropicals, south Asian and meso American plants. If you are in a slightly colder area treat them as annuals if they die off in winter when you go below 50 or 40 F. Grow most of your food in wicking beds or partially waterproof beds of some kind with a water reserve in the bottom. Use your grey water. Grey water lines from my kitchen and bathroom into the grow beds changed the face of my garden and turned the hot season scorched garden into a lush summer jungle and I can grow summer rain African vegetables like sorghum. Grow as many perennial food plants as possible whose deeper root systems can make the plant more resilient. Hedgerows keep off drying winds. Grow native food plants... of course... they will be able to cope with everything your local weather throws at them. Mulch deeply. Water on demand rather than with an irrigation system. This trains roots down into the soil. I have a website where I explore the peculiarities of growing in our odd climate. It's called greenidiom.

[AdrianaDtMF]

Zone 10b here and a tiny balcony with like 2-3 hours sometimes 4 of morning sun and 3 hours of hot afternoon sun ☀️ Would love to see more videos on types of things that would thrive hot humid weather. Didn't know I could plant squash in shade if it's hot?!? All these "full sun" labels are throwing me off because it's so hot 🥵 in Florida 😅

[RonAndJaneThailand]

Me again. Living mulch. Annuals such as calendula, nasturtium, sweet alyssum
Perennial Mulches comfrey, oregano,
rhubarb, thyme and white clover. I even use some native weeds here as a living mulch and purposely spread them. Dealing with such a massive area. Retains moisture, these flower so great for the pollinators, ediple flowers, keeps something in the ground and can be mowed or chopped down for mulch elsewhere or put in the compost pile.