The heat, my God, the heat. How do you folks in the South stand this year after year?

[Denninmi]

I've HAD IT

This heat is driving my nuts. It's hard to have much enthusiasm for gardening when it's constantly hot and humid.

What do people in the south and southwest do in the hot season -- just not have a garden, ignore it and let it go on autopilot, do everything outdoors before 8:00 in the morning?

[LWolf]

1. I moved 1200 miles north to escape the heat,

and it can still be too hot to do much in the daytime during parts of the summer, especially July.

Where does it never get hotter than the 70s?

[elleng]

2. Maybe here?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10367309

[Curmudgeoness]

3. It's called air conditioning.

When I lived in Houston, that got me through the summers. And also the thought that in the middle of the winter, I would not be scraping ice and snow off the car all the time and worrying about how bad the roads are.

As to gardening, I did everything very early in the morning or very late in the evening. But there were things that just would not grow in the middle of the summer there. You had to adjust.

[Kolesar]

4. We were in the U.P. last week and it hit 94 degrees in the Porcupine Mountains

We were hiking at ~1200 feet altitude near the 48th parallel.
I jumped into Lake Superior up to my neck.

[Javaman]

5. I live in Austin. I have a garden every year.

You just have to know what to grow and how to grow it. I just put in pumpkins

[sinkingfeeling]

6. I'm not standing it. It's been around 100 degrees here for two months

with a grand total of 1 1/2 inches of rain. I have to water my plants every single day.

[flying_wahini]

7. I live in Houston and I garden every day, sometimes up to 6 hours a day or more....

Yes, it is hot.... but I acclimate my body every year by being outside in it just about every day ...

although we have already had 32 or more inches of rain this year and we hit 100 degrees way back in June - humidity is pretty bad but

you really Can get used to it. I sweat a LOT. The mosquitoes are the worst.

[drthais]

8. yes..it's in the timing

6-8 in the morning
6-8 in the evening
that's how we do it.
stay in during the heat of the day.

We don't allow our CSA members out n the garden at any other times!

[Denninmi]

9. Wow, my post was prophetic.

Sorry, just a little private joke with myself.

[JDPriestly]

10. I'm in Los Angeles and thinking about starting seeds in the house very soon.

We will get cold weather in December, January and February. It will start to get cold in November and that is the ideal time to start my lettuce, herbs and spinach. It will be too hot for them maybe in July or August. I plant or repot tomatoes and squash and hot weather veggies (and herbs like mint) in time to be mature in the summer months.

Many years, we do not see freezing weather. So our "cold" may not seem that cold in other parts of the US.

Our problem is the extreme heat on some summer days and the drought, the annual drought and the ongoing drought in recent years.

We got maybe 3/4 of an inch rain recently and it was cause for celebration.