Plants Looking Stressed? Maybe They Need Sunscreen

Before moving to the southwest, the thought of shading my vegetable garden from the sun never occurred to me. Plants LOVE sunlight, right? I thought this especially true for those mid-summer heat lovers, like tomatoes, peppers and melons.

Surviving a few summers here has taught me one big lesson…shade is precious. This goes, not only in finding a cool spot on the park bench under a tree or for the car at the grocery store parking lot, but for plants as well.

In the garden, plants that receive partially filtered sunlight or shade (even if for only the later half of the day) have shown less stress and required less water than those in full sun all day. This break from the intense solar rays allows them to put more energy into producing fruit and leaves instead of pumping water to cool down the exposed parts.

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Here, you can see the difference a little relief from a lightweight, cloth row cover makes on the beetroot and kale:

Filtered Light = happy and healthy
Full Sun = sad and stressed

The long-term plan is to plant a mulberry tree on the west side of the yard in spring. Once fully grown, it should block out the setting sun at the hottest time of day here…evenings. It will also produce those juicy mulberries my family loves so much and leaf mulch for the garden beds. Now that will be some good Function Multi-Stacking!