This year, as usual, I started 36 plants in Walls O' Water in mid-April. I usually remove the WOWs in June once it seems safe to do so. This year, I'm leaving them on all season. Does anybody else do this? A local master gardener swears this helps the plants beat the heat. He says it's like evaporative cooling. So far, so good. In yesterday's 103° heat, these larger plants did fine and didn't seem to need extra water. I'm sure this method wouldn't work that well somewhere where it is more humid, but it's so dry here I though I'd try it. The jury is still out as to whether this will actually help them set fruit in extra hot conditions. Pervaya Lyubov has 15 or so fruit inside the WOW, and Ananas Noir, Malachite Box and Fish Lake Oxheart all have several fruit down inside, but most have fruit and blossoms outside (above) the WOW, so who knows if the roots being cooler will help with fruit set. I got a lot of blossom drop yesterday, but I think it was due to the hard rain more than the heat.
Here's my front garden in the late afternoon shade. Thank God for trees! Yes, that is an old sink over on the right. It's going to get some tumbler tomatoes planted in it once this heat breaks.
Robin
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