Story: Successful Hot Weather Gardening
Episode: 11
Presenter: Darren Seinor
Air Date: 30 October 2021

How do we protect our outdoor plants from the heat? Darren heads to North Perth Community Garden to help solve their heatwave issue.

• Most of Perth is built-in dry, impoverished sand, which in most gardens soon becomes hydrophobic, which prevents water from soaking into the soil where it’s needed.
• A great quality wetting agent is the perfect remedy to this problem and will help the water soak right into the soil, where your plants need it.
• A simple, protective shade-cloth frame can make a huge difference in helping to get establishing plants to grow.
• Manage your fertilizing routine carefully during summer.
• Applying too many nutrients will encourage your plants to grow large amounts of new growth that will be highly susceptible to burn and scorch.
• Controlled, slow-release fertilizers work best, supplemented with an occasional half-strength liquid feed.
• Applying mulch to garden beds is a well-recognized way to save water in the garden by greatly limiting the evaporation of soil moisture, but mulching has more benefits than that.
• Mulch helps keep the soil cooler, which lowers plant stress and makes your soil more hospitable to soil microbes which in turn benefits your plants & garden.