Shade Plants: What To Do When Your Garden Plants Keep Wilting
Posted on: 30 March 2017
Do your garden plants keep wilting under the heat? When garden plants wilt, it's usually because of both sun and heat. Not many plants are a full sun variety, and even these can experience wilting during temperature extremes. During the summer and fall months especially, it becomes necessary to offer some shade to plants. But that might not be as easy as it sounds; you also need to be able to remove the shade for sun as needed.
Begin By Tracking the Sun
Everyone's home is oriented a little differently. Throughout a day, you should track where the sun falls. Are there areas of your yard that get sun for a full day? Half day? Quarter day? Often, there will be an area around your home that gets sun anywhere from 4 to 8 hours a day. This is usually the best place for plants that need periods of both full sun and shade. Areas that have full sun are often the best for fruits, vegetables, trees, and other high-energy plants.
Install a Patio Cover
If your entire yard gets full sun for most of the day, you may need to get a little more proactive. Installing a retracting patio cover can be a good solution. A patio cover can either be positioned so that it slowly gives shade over the day, or it can be retracted for part of the day so that your plants can get sun. Many more delicate plants, such as hanging strawberries, can benefit from this type of treatment. Contact a company like Aluminum Builders Home Center to learn more about patio covers.
Put Up a Light Blocker
Trees and fences are natural light blockers -- when the sun gets far along on the horizon, these blockers will cast a shadow over your plants. A privacy fence may be enough to shade some of the plants around your perimeter, while a tree can eventually produce enough shade for an entire garden. Just be careful: some types of trees can grow large and dense enough that they'll eventually shade your entire yard.
Managing light and shade is a very important component to developing a garden -- in fact, it's just as important as regular watering. For further information, you can look up the type of plants you have and exactly how much sun they need throughout the year. Remember also that indirect light does count—it just isn't as effective. Some plants will thrive when constantly in the shade, while others will need at least a few hours of direct sunshine.
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