Happy Friday. Today's question is a very common one, and it's one that I think most of us experience,

and that is, how do I keep my plants from wilting in the afternoon sun? This may vary from garden to garden,

depending on where you're located. Levels like humidity also play a role and how long you stay hot,

how much shade you may have or may not have. So it really just kind of depends a lot on where you're

located. But it also, more importantly, depends on what the cause of the wilting is. And that may be the most challenging

thing for us as gardeners is to figure out what is actually causing the wilting because we assume

it's because of the heat. We assume it is because of water and it may very well be one of those

things, but it may not be. So let's look at a few causes of your

plants wilting in the afternoon sun in the summer. The first potential cause is the heat.

When it gets really hot outside and your plants are in the sun, a lot of times that is a mechanism of the plant to curl under itself

and to wilt a little bit to save its energy and to save having to respire all the moisture that's

in the plant. So you may notice that it's more wilty in the late afternoon, but then it perks back up by the next

morning. And that's just a defense mechanism where the plant is trying to save its reserves of

moisture as much as possible. So in many cases, it's just a cue to us to make sure that we keep

the plant watered, especially if you have a period of dry

spells. But also, I've noticed that I have to be real careful in assuming that I'm watering my

plants enough because I might not be. That's probably the second factor when it comes to wilting

is, are we actually watering our plants enough? And like I said,

there's a lot that goes into this. I have drip lines in my garden, but when I go outside,

I notice that I think I have too many probably for the water pressure that I have, so I don't really

think that my garden is getting enough water. The way that it is, I can tell by how long and how

wide the capillary action of that water is seeping. And so sometimes I think we just assume,

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