Summer has just started and your vegetable garden is already suffering from the ravages of the sun and successive heat waves? Do not panic. In order to continue to enjoy a good harvest, there are solutions to give your crops some shade and thus relieve your plantations without overwatering. Here are four solutions based on natural techniques or recycling to create an oasis of freshness at the heart of your vegetable garden.
Adopt a cascading culture
This is one of the main principles of permaculture. By combining different plants, a synergy is created thanks to the combined forces of each variety. In periods of high heat, for example, combining fruit shrubs, maize or sunflowers with more delicate crops such as lettuce, radishes or cucumbers provides favorable shade. Likewise, strawberry plants can easily take advantage of the shade of a lettuce or a leek. Ultimately, your vegetable garden benefits from a cascading culture in which everyone plays their part.
Make a plant screen
What if you shield your vegetable garden from the sun’s rays with a plant screen that is as dense as it is productive? To do this, all you need to do is install a burlap net attached to two brackets on the most exposed side of your vegetable garden. Once the latter is installed, plant species such as climbing beans at the base, which tolerate strong sun exposure particularly well.
Install shade sails
Shade sails are a good solution to relieve your vegetable garden. It is possible to buy these shades commercially. However, if they have the advantage of being perforated, which allows wind and rainwater to pass through for natural water that is so precious in the summer, they also have the disadvantage of being mostly made of plastic. To avoid consuming resources that are harmful to the planet, you might as well install clotheslines above your vegetable garden on which you lay sheets during periods of high heat. A particularly effective low-cost backup solution to relieve your plants during heat waves.
Find temporary sun visors
While you are waiting for your raspberry tree to reach its mature size or for your sunflowers to grow enough to cast their shadow over your beloved veggies, there are backup solutions. And they only come from your common sense. So don’t hesitate to pick up the crates of your melons and other nectarines to tackle the most urgent and place them face down on your most vulnerable low plants. An old umbrella lying in the entrance? Doesn’t matter: well oriented, it works wonders to refresh your vegetable garden.
So many valuable solutions to guarantee you a good harvest this summer. And to limit the watering of your vegetable garden, discover how to make your own oyas with recycled materials.