When summer is underway, your plants in the garden may experience quite a lot of stress. If you live somewhere hot, the sun will literally bake the ground soil and evaporate the moisture from it in no time, depriving the plants from much needed water. During the hot weather, you have to take extra gardening care, if you want to ensure your plants stay healthy.

There is a lot you can do to ensure the summer heat doesn’t get the best of your plants. If you want to ensure that you reap a rich produce, you need to implement several methods and techniques to combat the negative effects hot weather can have on your plants. Follow the tips below to guarantee this is the case:

Water management - when the weather is hot, it is extremely important to be effective in watering and ensure that you don’t just waste this precious resource. When the temperatures are high, water evaporates quickly. This is the reason why you should water your plants in the morning and evening, as this minimises evaporation. Plants absorb water easily when the soil is not heated up by the sun. Furthermore, watering in that time of the day reduces the risk of heat scald. If you want to be truly effective, when it comes to watering, you should keep in mind that quality, not quantity is important. Target plants directly to ensure they receive adequate water.

Shade your plants - if you are looking for ways to block the sunlight and its intense effects on your plants, you can resort to shade cloth. Most gardening centres offer the product in a variety of sizes and configurations. The most important thing to keep in mind when it comes to buying shade cloth is its shading factor, which shows what amount of sunlight is blocked. This can greatly vary and ranges anywhere between 20 to 90%. Depending on the type of plants you want to protect, you have to acquire a specific shade cloth. After all, your plants need sunlight in order to grow.

Apply mulch for soil protection - gardening experts all agree that mulch can be quite helpful for your plants in the summer. It offers great protection, as it prevents the sun from baking the top layer of soil that shallow rooted plants need to dwell in. Go for light colored mulch, as it can easily reflect sunlight. Dry grass clippings make an excellent option and so do bark mulch, which has the added benefit of preventing weeds from growing.

Pay extra care for transplants - transplants are vulnerable to heat in the summer. When you transplant, you should keep all of the previous tips in mind but also consider clever ways to enable your seedlings to grow strong in the heat. One such tip is planting next to taller plants, in order to provide natural shading.

Make sure you follow each of these 4 tips in order to keep your garden healthy and ready to endure the summer heat. For more ideas: London Gardening Services Ltd.