Gardening in the desert is hard enough without making these summer garden mistakes. My garden last summer was gorgeous. My plants were green and happy. What they weren’t doing was producing fruit… We are learning what works and what doesn’t, one day at a time.

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Summer Garden Mistake #1 – Watering with a Sprinkler

We learned the hard way. We had beautiful and happy plants in a shade covered garden that stayed moist and 20 degrees cooler than the outside air temperature, but we had NO FRUIT. No tomatoes, no cucumbers, no squash. Our overhead sprinkler was over watering some plants and under watering others. We have now installed a lower emitter watering system that I think will be the perfect solution.

Summer Garden Mistake #2 – Too much Shade

My husband ordered shade cloth for our garden on Amazon. He got a great deal, but 40% shade was TOO MUCH SHADE for most of our fruits and veggies to flower and produce. They do need some sunshine!

Our solution: this year we are shopping for shade cloth options (from BOOTSTRAP FARMER!) and we will change the positioning to only block the sun from midday through the intense afternoon heat. We expect this will help our plants thrive.

My dream is to get one of BOOTSTRAP FARMER’S DIY Hoophouse kits! 20’x40′ should really kick our garden into overdrive! My birthday is coming up 😉

Garden Mistake #3 – Overcrowding plants

I *MAY* have over planted my raised beds, especially with tomatoes. We had heirloom indeterminate tomato vines around 12’+ long and no support system strong enough to hold them upright. Any other plants growing around them were crowded out. It was NOT pretty!

There were tomato plants spreading everywhere. It kind of looked like they had taken on a life of their own and were plotting world domination.

Josh has created tomato “teepees” this winter out of scrap 2×4’s to support my wayward vines!

Mistake #4 – Wrong season plantings

The most obvious mistake you can make is trying to grow plants in the wrong seasons! Some of my plants should’ve been planted at the end of summer: kale, romaine, cilantro, chard, more CUCUMBERS. I also didn’t plant other types early enough to maximize summer crops. For example, I should have planted more okra, melons, peppers, squash and other hot weather lovers. I WILL plan ahead with my plantings to better maximize my growing seasons this time around!

Summer plants that thrived outside: Spaghetti Squash, watermelon, peppers, okra

Summer Garden Mistake #5 – Not Starting Sooner

Some plants should’ve been planted 3 months earlier in the spring: cucumbers, for example. They were an epic FAIL. No cucumbers. Utter disappointment. The tomatoes barely had time to produce before the nights got too warm for them to set fruit (and the over watering/shade wasn’t helping).

We also didn’t cover the garden with plastic until after our first frost stung many of the plants a bit. We need to keep long-term planning in mind, not just the immediate growing season.

Summer Garden Mistake #6 – Too Much Water

Over watering is one big summer garden mistake! Some of your plants look wilty because it’s hot so you water and water and water! I was watering every day with a sprinkler for 30-60 minutes. However, watering our entire raised bed garden with an overhead oscillating sprinkler created issues. Some areas that were too wet all the time and other areas (like the outer corners of the rectangular garden) didn’t receive enough water. Next thing you know, tomatoes have huge cracks (over watering) and other plants are wilting.

However, one solution to this is a grid watering system such as Growing in the Garden uses. Check out Master Gardener Angela Judd and her epic vegetable and flower garden here in Arizona! She’s truly an inspiration. Angela’s grid drip watering system is ideal for square and rectangular garden beds (mine are triangular, so I’m still working on the geometry of that! LOL). All of her plants receive an equal amount of water.

Summer Garden Mistake #7 – Not Enough Water

The most obvious summer garden mistake is not enough water. It’s too easy to superficially wet the garden beds with a hose sprayer or water can and say, “OK, the plants are watered!”

Nope! Check the soil underneath the top layer to see how wet your beds truly are. Many popular garden plants like tomatoes are deep rooted and thrive with consistent and adequate watering. Not too much, not too little!

However, one solution to the yo-yo over watering/under watering problem is these awesome homemade self watering raised beds by Green Thumb Nursery in Arkansas! Check them out on YouTube being interviewed by Jill at The Beginner’s Garden! Below is our self-watering raised beds that we built at our school this spring following their instructions. So far, they are working great!

Here’s how we assembled the self-watering raised beds at my school:

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