During the beginning of this month, we endured quite the heatwave in Southern California (as well as most of the West Coast and Southwest). It was over 10 days of over 100F temperatures, with the hottest topping 111F and several days of 108F and 106F. It started with dry temps and quickly moved to a slowly rising humidity. The rising temperatures and change in humidity added a strange dimension to the garden.

Overall, I did not lose much of my garden during the heat wave. The worst damage was to just a few of my succulents that had burnt edges to its leaves and three of my plants just shriveling up and dying. The rest of my succulents survived which was quite a blessing considering that previous severe heat waves wiped out more than half of my succulent plants.

My dahlias were already on its last legs before the heat wave and was still hanging in there until about a week into the heat wave and the humidity climbed, the dahlias just finally gave up. But after two weeks, it rebounded and new leaves are already forming.

And my watermelon, well, my watermelon just kept growing like nothing was going on.

Another reason was that this occurred later in the planting season and I already had many plants pulled out (squash in particular) and I didn’t have much planted. I had sweet potatoes, passion fruit, watermelon, and native plants all which could withstand the heat and thrive in it.

Several reasons why my garden did not die an immediate death would have to be the weather itself. Because of the slow climb of heat, the plants had the chance to adapt to the heat. I’ve had lots of plants die when it was a 100 degree day that jumped to 114 the next. This did not occur as we went from 102 to 106 to 111, the plants had the chance to adapt.

I used shade cover for two areas: my lettuce, arugula, and basil box, and one succulent area. I also purchased another shade cover right before the heat wave and used it to cover the seeds I planted a week before. The seeds were zinnia and marigold seeds. Because I didn’t have luck growing zinnias earlier this year, I thought I should try to plant it during the off season and the heat coupled with the shade helped the seeds germinate. Zinnia plants are also known for being heat tolerant.

Olla water pots proved that watering your garden with these pots the ancient way is the wave of the future. Because the pots are buried and the roots head towards the moisture, your soil underneath stays damp and water is efficiently used. I plan on having more information on this as soon as the season tapers off and I can take pictures and provide more detailed information.

Another important measure that I took was to resist the urge to water. Because it was hot, the tendency was to compensate by watering. I didn’t. I continued with a REGULAR watering schedule which is every few days. And because of the Olla pots work as water storage, the need is only to fill it to the top whenever you choose.

I hope everyone’s garden faired well and when creating a garden in our desert environment, and the changes in our climate, we will need to adapt new ways to cope with these spikes in temperatures.