How To Deal With Temperature Extreme's In Your Vegetable Garden

Sept. 4, 2009 - PRLog -- For southern hemisphere food gardeners, we have now entered spring and for many of us, a whole range of food plants open up as ready for planting. Whilst northern hemisphere gardeners are now moving into Autumn and experiencing the end of their summer bounty.

At these times of the year where there is a cross over to a new season, there are often extreme's of temperature that can add many challenges to your food gardening. These extreme's are remnants of the season just past and when you add in the variability of climate change, then food gardening can become quite tricky.

Here are some tips to help you deal with climate variability at these times of the year:  
1. When planting out your seedlings, give them extra care as they may be hit by extreme cold or heat. Healthy soil is the primary way to protect plants from temperature extreme's. If you have not planted out seedlings, then I suggest you delay your planting, keep them in your seedling trays, don't buy seedlings or plant seeds in trays out of the weather. Then wait until the temperature moves back to a more appropriate level for the season.

2. If you have already planted out your seedlings, then make sure they have some protection overhead from either frost or heat.

3. For both heat and cool, give the plants extra water. In cool temperatures, water them early in the morning and for heat, ensure they get a very good soaking in the late afternoon.

4. Make sure you choose appropriate plants for the season. Its very easy just plant what is available rather than being more conscious of the importance of planting in season. Our web site localised planting calendar at www.cityfoodgrowers.com enables food gardeners in every state, city and town of USA, Australia and New Zealand to create a localised climate profile for their garden so the correct plants can be chosen. It also helps vegetable gardeners be prepared for temperature extreme's by warning them of extreme heat or cold during the growing period of the plant they select in the current month of search.

5. For your older plants in the garden that still have some productivity left, water them well and give them some liquid manure to help tune them up to resist the impact of temperature extreme's. If you do not give them this extra attention, you will find them weakening and being more prone to attack by pests and disease or simply dying off prematurely.

www.cityfoodgrowers.com

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Cityfood Growers provides home gardeners with easy access online to localised knowledge on growing their own food with organic gardening methods. Gardening workshops, urban agriculture consulting and food gardening content for schools also provided.