The heat is on 🥵🌡️🌶️

The summer solstice (this year on June 20) may mark the official beginning of summer, but around here, it starts much earlier. Realistically, our “warm season” lasts from mid-May to the end of September, give or take a week or two.

Except for a few short-lived spikes into 100°F territory, it’s been a benign summer so far. But that’s about to change. In a massive way. In anticipation of a heat dome starting Monday, July 1, the National Weather Service issued an excessive heat warning for Tuesday through Saturday, including Independence Day. According to the forecast, “[h]ighs of 105 to 115 will be possible through much of the valley and foothills during the week.” That may not seem newsworthy in, say, Las Vegas or Phoenix, but for the Sacramento Valley, extended periods over 100°F, let alone 105°F, isn’t all that common.

Here’s the forecast for Davis:

Whenever I feel a little depressed about the weather, I look to places that are even worse off. Like Death Valley:

These temperatures may seem crazy, but they’re not even close to the all-time high for Death Valley. The highest temperature ever recorded in Death Valley was 134°F on July 10, 1913. That is still the world record. The day-time highs forecast for Death Valley are stupefying, but the night-time lows are just as bad. At least here in Davis, we benefit from the Delta Breeze, which brings overnight temperatures down to agreeable levels.

Actually, I don't even have to go as far as Death Valley. Redding, about 150 miles north of here at the northern end of the Central Valley, is scary enough:

To prepare for this impending heatwave, I gave my plants (potted and in the ground) a good soaking this past weekend. Irrigating well in advance of high heat gives plants time to take up the water and derive maximum benefit from it. Plants that are under heat stress might shut down and not take up much, if any, water, causing them to cook when stuck in hot, moist soil.

I also covered some areas in the garden to prevent sunburn. I don’t want my plants to be disfigured, even if the damage is just temporary.

To cover my plants, I typically use old window screen; I kept a bunch when we had our screen doors repaired a few years ago. Because I wanted to cover larger areas, I also ordered some 55% shade cloth from Amazon. It’s a lightweight knitted mesh made of high-density polyethylene that lets air through, ensuring adequate ventilation. 55% means that the material blocks 55% of the sunlight.

Chances are my plants would be fine without being covered, but it’s easy enough to do – and it makes me feel better.

If you live in an area routinely subject to high heat, how do you protect your plants, if at all?

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