Summertime is the best period in the whole year for plant growing. It’s warm and wet during the summer so flowers and vegetables flourish everywhere. Summer warmth is guaranteed by the sunlight and sun heat. Unfortunately, very often sunlight can become extreme and at these moments you need to provide proper sun protection to your plants. Failing to protect the plants from direct sunlight is one of the most common mistakes that young gardeners make. Here with the help of professional gardeners, we offer you three basic methods of sun protection for plants.
Too much sun is harm, but its lack is bad as well
Sunlight contains UV rays that are essential for the photosynthesis process. With a little water and soil nutrients, plants are able to grow and turn CO2 in O2 that is so essential for the planet. However, if you cut the access to the UV rays for your plants completely, photosynthesis won’t take place and the plant won’t be able to grow and develop. Excessive sun has the similar effect on plants: too much sunlight overwhelms the delicate membranes; that results in slower growth and eventually plant dying.
Besides harming the plants, summer heat and direct sunlight have a negative impact on the soil. Several days without watering leave the soil water- and nutrition-less; as a result, plants lose their supplies and means for growth.
The output: sun protection of both soil and plants is essential during the summer days to support plants’ healthy growth and protect them from drying up.
3 methods of sun protection for plants
You have three basic options to protect your plants from the sun: you can buy special sun protection; you can build it, and you can naturally grow it.
Grow sun protection
It’s a natural order for more sensitive plants to seek sun protection from other plants. This is a tactic you can use in your garden. You can go for ivy or decorative grapes and grow a natural protecting wall that will let some sunlight on your sensitive plants and at the same time take the biggest heat up-front. Here is the list of flowers that can help you do so:
- Miniature rose
- Sago palm
- Croton
- Snake plant
- Hibiscus
- Anthuriums
- Bamboo
- Peace lily
Apart from flowers, remember that you can use bushes and trees as sun protection means for your garden. Of course, you should be patient about organizing a natural shield because it takes time to grow those walls of grapes or an actual tree. Most gardeners spend about 2-3 years to do this right.
Image courtesy of Jessica Ricco
Build sun protection
Don’t look for some intricate solutions to a trivial problem. All you need is build sun protection for your plants for the sunniest and hottest days of July. Don’t go far and take a cheesecloth to simply cover the garden up. Place it directly or stretch it with wooden sticks over the garden to make a difference. The beneficial quality of cheesecloth is that it still allows the light and so the essential UV to get through, yet it significantly softens its impact.
The method above works well for the fully grown plants, yet for the seedlings you’ll need another sun protection technique. As these plants are young, they are more sensitive to any harmful influences. So to eliminate the threat of drying, just cover them up with a plastic laundry basket turned upside down. This method helps block the sun from the plant as well as the soil and even works against the most determined predators (especially if you stake it down).
With a little bit of time and carpentry work, you can design a lean-to, a box, or whatever to your heart’s content. Anything that fits into the function of UV sun protection for plants will do the job. The important point is to keep the construction light and tight to ensure that it’s secured firmly, yet that it won’t harm the plants should it get knocked-off or blown away by the wind.
Image courtesy of LittleHouseinColorado
Buy sun protection
The gardening market is full of sun protection devices that can help your garden in summer. The choice you make depends on the budget and the garden’s needs (meaning its size and location).
For flowers in beds, you can opt for decorative umbrellas and small tents that can cover the beds and work for a single pot as well. Ensure that you place the umbrella in the correct place to cover the plants during the hottest time of the day (11 am to 2 pm on average).
For a vegetable garden, you will need to be more creative as they tend to occupy larger spaces. However, the online stores have hundreds of cover methods to deal with large areas.
If you’re only planning your garden and buying the supplies for it, then shading apparatus is your choice; most beginners oversee the opportunity in the beginning and then pay heavy price for it.
Images courtesy of Amazon
Sun protection for the backyard plants is essential if you want to maintain a beautiful and healthy garden. Ensure that you take care of the preparations now so that your plants survive the hottest month of the year with ease.
