Beat the heat
Nurturing Your Garden During a Heatwave
Ecclesiastes 11:4: “Farmers who wait for perfect weather never plant. If they watch every cloud, they never harvest,”…11:6, “Plant your seed in the morning and keep busy all afternoon, for you don’t know if profit will come from one activity or the another — or maybe both.”
We are only a few days into summer here in Joburg, but you’d never think it given the intense heatwave we’ve experienced over the past weeks. The heat coupled with low rainfall (at a time when we should be well into the rainy season) has had me concerned about the garden and about my bees. The promise of La Nina rain has been deferred so I either have to learn a rain dance or gird my loins to fight for my garden’s survival. Following an assessment of my dance skills, I’ve chosen the latter! Here is how I maintain a healthy, happy garden through the crushing heat.
Using permaculture principles in my garden has been my saving grace over the past year. I have upped my mulching game and I plant more drought-tolerant varieties of crops rather than the heirlooms I so enjoy. But what about the bees? I have seen harrowing videos of fellow beekeepers lamenting the dry state of the comb in their hives – there is nothing to harvest… yet! While I am cynical at times, I am a perpetual optimist and I have not abandoned hope. Rain will come and the bees are so sophisticated and intelligent that they will survive. That said, there are some things we can do to support our hardworking girls.
My hives are in a shady part of the garden which helps keep them cool to some extent. I give the bees a water source – usually in the form of an old yoghurt tub filled with water which I refill daily. I have also planted some drought-tolerant flowers to feed the pollinators – sunflowers, marigolds, dahlias, borage etc. As a result, I don’t supplement their feed with sugar. I regularly sit and observe my bees and I do periodic hive inspections just to see how they are doing. My colonies are relatively young so I am trying not to be a ‘helicopter bee-mom’ but it is important that I set them up for success despite the climate issues. Lastly, I garden organically so there are no harmful chemicals affecting the ecosystem.
We can’t control the weather but we can, to some extent, control the micro-climate in our gardens and support the ecosystem as best as we can. I know the conditions are tough, but this is a season to grow – not to give up! So despite the conditions, let’s press on and have a great summer growing season.