Shade cloths, a vegetable garden lifesaver in the desert
Oh what a difference shade makes! The left-half of the garden only got covered an hour before the photo was taken, while the right-half has been covered for over a month and is still verdant. Ignore the sunflower mess. Once June heat takes hold in the low desert you will see a decline in garden productivity. Some of your plants, like peas and beans, will probably be done for the season and will die off completely. Others, like peppers, might not care much that they've been placed into an oven. But others, like tomatoes, will stop producing yet stay alive until a second spurt of fruiting in the fall--if you give them enough water and protection from the sun. Some of you might be lucky enough to have a perfectly positioned tree that shades your crop in the summer, the rest of use have to rely on shade cloths . They can be so effective that I have a lavender that lived through multiple 115+ degree days in the most exposed part of my yard because it's under...