Heat wave!

When Summer began, I adapted to the hotter weather by watering the younger plants in our food forest twice a day - once in the morning usually before it got hot and again when it cooled off in the evening.  On days when they were irrigated with greywater from our washing machine, I still moistened the mulch around my heritage fig trees, curry plants and my not-so-drought tolerant loquat tree. 

Note: This is a learning experience for me. I've been told that deep watering once or twice a week is the ticket with loquats.  (See comment below.) Dan has some five gallon buckets with holes drilled in the bottom that we can use. 

Sometimes I would get so caught up posting in Desktop Activist Tucson that I wouldn't get to it until 9 a.m. or even 10.  My bad... But the monsoon rains would save the day! 

But then the monsoon rains went away and it reached 109 degrees yesterday! This morning I read in ARIZONA DAILY STAR, "Be prepared: 3-day excessive heat warning for Tucson area."

"Today is expected to be the hottest of the three-day excessive heat warning for the Tucson area, but a little relief could come this weekend, the National Weather Service says in its forecast [...] Today's high could reach 112 degrees. The record high for the date is 109 [...] in 1987. Tucson has only hit highs above 110 degrees for more than two consecutive July days four times since 1895, the weather service says."

YIKES! No more dilly-dallying for me! This morning I got outside by 6:30 a.m. and gave my plants two cans of water instead of one. 

I remembered how my baby moringas made it through the hot summer with the help of a little shade. 

I still had the tomato supports and shade cloth, so I constructed a shade contraption over the already scorched loquat tree and the curry plants.

I have been pulling the shade cloth off so the loquat gets some morning sun. I cover it up again when the ground is so hot it burns my bare feet.

The heritage fig trees by the greywater basin were looking good, so I decided to see how they would fare with intermittent shade from our eucalyptus and palm trees. 

I'll put in another load of laundry...