Update on my 2017 Spring Garden

The garden is doing very good the weather has been great the temperature has been in the 80*- 90* range soon it will 100* and more so I thought I would take some pictures to remember the good times and to share with You. The first bed is onions and garlic that I had to move when I built the new beds and the bush peas are starting to produce, The second photo is the beginnings of my Herb bed the sugar snap are delicious that trellis is over 6' tall. The blue tub is a experiment I had a sweet potato start to sprout in the pantry I know I'm late but  I will plant sweet potatoes in it. In the third photo shows my second & third bed I was having trouble with my spaghetti squash taking over the whole bed and Sanderson showed me Hers growing up a trellis so I'm trying to do the same that's why it looks odd, my Tomatoes in the third bed are now about the size of a quarter can't Waite Fresh Tomatoes, the fig tree is starting leaf out again I thought I lost it last winter To the one hard frost we had it got down to the low 20*. The fourth photo is my newest bed I have peppers, watermelon. okra and beans. the fifth & sixth photos are showing close-ups of the spaghetti squash and my Aunt Molly ground cherries which are starting to spred out . Well enough rambling the rain is over we were in a tornado warning this morning but it's over time to do something Thanks for looking.

WOW!   Gorgeous!

Your garden is so healthy and beautiful! And those shade covers are amazing! Never seen anything like them.
CC

Very nice!

Beautiful garden!

I was advised by some on the forum to use mulch and shade cloth, "Real good advice" But sense my garden is on a utility easement and I have a electral distribution box located in my back yard "Wires going everywhere" I didn't want to start digging holes for a permeant structure "could be a shocking experience". The funny thing is my neighbor in the back is OK just not very friendly one day I was on a ladder working on one of my trellises so we could actually see each other and while talking He got a funny look on his face had he asked me What are you doing over there? Now maybe I should explain We have lived here for just over two years and the house has been a rental before we bought  it So people are use to people coming and going, And I'm living proof that Yankees are dumb, coming down here trying to garden in this heat, heck people down here don't even have a flower garden . well anyway when I raze my sun shades to work in the beds it must really get them to wondering . Well that's my story just hope my plan works.

So how much sun is too much sun?

For me anything over 85*, for the plants I would say 90* to 100* plus. I'm sure there's more experienced gardeners out maybe have a better answer but I have read plants stop producing and go into survival mode at around 90*

newbeone wrote:For me anything over 85*,

You are better than me...68* is ideal to me

newbeone wrote:for the plants I would say 90* to 100* plus. I'm sure there's more experienced gardeners out maybe have a better answer but I have read plants stop producing and go into survival mode at around 90*

Good to know.

Summers get up to 110*F here in this part of CA. Those in the lower latitudes get some brutal sun plus heat. Can't do anything about the weather, but shade cloth (and mulch) can help cool the surface temperature around the plants. I can actually walk barefoot on the red bricks under the shade cloth. Once it is late summer/early fall, everything gets back to producing. :-)

sanderson wrote:Summers get up to 110*F here in this part of CA.  Those in the lower latitudes get some brutal sun plus heat.  Can't do anything about the weather, but shade cloth (and mulch) can help cool the surface temperature around the plants.  I can actually walk barefoot on the red bricks under the shade cloth.  Once it is late summer/early fall, everything gets back to producing. :-)

Believe it or not,  our summers in ND can get to 110 as well.   Usually only about 2 to 3 days a year though.  Being so fast away from the oceans that would help stabilize temps really shows.   110 degree summer days and -20 degree winter days.  I'm afraid it might be a pretty quick transition from plastic for frost protection to shade cloth.