Gardens for Hot Summers

Gardening in the searing summer sun is always a challenge. Not only do plants wilt in the heat, but gardeners also suffer! But hot summers don't mean that you can't have a colorful garden. Numerous care-free plants with tropical temperaments crave high temperatures and strong sunlight.

The wisest approach is planning in advance to make sure that neither you nor your garden stumbles into the scorching season unprepared. Most climates with hot summers also have long spring and fall seasons, which offer the ideal conditions for working outdoors. Instead of waiting until summer's hot breath is just around the corner, get as much digging and planting done as you can fit into the shorter, cooler days of spring and fall. And when the dog days do arrive, enjoy gardening in the cool hours of the morning or evening.

You won't be the only one to benefit from shifting your schedule to suit the seasons. Your plants will also appreciate your advance planning. Plants set out in fall or early spring are spared the stress of starting out in a hot summer with skimpy roots that cannot take up moisture as fast as it evaporates through their leaves. When perennials and shrubs show new green growth in spring, rapid root growth is also taking place below ground. So, every spring day that a plant can spend in the garden contributes to the growth of a deep, extensive root system that it will need to pull moisture from the soil in the hot days ahead.

Sizzling Colors for Hot Gardens

Flowers that are white or pastel colored are much harder to see in the glare of strong summer sunlight than those that are rollicking shades of red, bright yellow, orange, bright pink, or purple. Flowers that are easy to spot in intense sunlight include those of sulfur cosmos, four-o'clocks, and hot-colored zinnias. Don't be afraid of putting plants like these into a sunny garden, but do limit your color scheme to a few coordinating colors, because the brighter the colors are, the more noticeable they will be if they clash. When working with orange, combine it with its complementary color, which is deep purple. Use flowering and foliage plants in yellow shades, such as butter daisies, 'New Gold' lantana and 'Marguerite' ornamental sweet potato vine to help blend together bright flowers. Tone down the intense magenta of flowers, such as rose campion and some hardy geraniums, by combining them with plants that have neutral, silvery gray leaves, such as dusty miller and artemisia. Care-free evergreens, such as juniper and mugo pine, also have a calming influence on bright bloomers, and they not only make great companions and provide a neutral background for setting off flower colors, but they also maintain their fresh greenery through winter, when they become the main attraction of the border.

If your winters are mild, you have the opportunity to grow cool-season annuals from fall to spring. Annual dianthus, dusty miller, pansies, and snapdragons are widely sold as fall bedding plants in warm climates, and planting them can keep your garden colorful nearly year-round. In cold-winter areas, look for flowering cabbage and kale, which can survive mild freezes.You'll find the cold-hardy annuals mentioned above in early spring. Adding a few of them to planters and window boxes can add one or two months of color to the growing season.

Drought Tolerant Plans

A number of care-free plants, including buddleia, purple coneflower, and yucca, which grow well in hot-summer areas, have the added talent of being drought tolerant. Because hot summer sun saps moisture from plants, seek these and others, such as ornamental grasses, portulaca, and stonecrop, which are rarely thirsty at the end of a summer day. These natural water misers all share a few traits. When shopping for them, look for plants with succulent leaves, which store water; plants with small leaves or finely dissected leaves, which have less surface area exposed to evaporation; and plants with silver or gray leaves, which reflect excess light. Plants with abundant thorns, or fuzzy leaves shade themselves, reducing evaporation from the leaves.

Before buying, read descriptions of plants on nursery tags and in mail-order catalogs carefully to learn their origins. Those from areas with soil and climate that are similar to yours should adapt. Deep-rooted prairie plants, such as purple coneflower, are incredibly drought tolerant. Salvias and yuccas, which are native to the Southwest, are equally able to thrive in hot, dry situations, as are artemesias and other herbs from Mediterranean countries. Summer-flowering bulbs from South America and South Africa, as well as Australian plants like phormiums are also superb performers for hot-summer gardens.

Watering your garden will be necessary sometimes, even if you grow plants that can take the heat. So make use of strategies to limit the time and water your garden requires. Place plants close together, including tall plants or trellised vines, so that they will cast some welcome shade on shorter neighbors. Concentrating your summer garden in a compact space also makes it easier to reach it with a hose. Or use soaker hoses, which are the most efficient and economical way to get water into the soil with minimal loss to evaporation. But remember that using mulch alone can conserve a great deal of soil moisture by slowing evaporation and keeping the soil cool.