When It Gets Too Hot For A Fruit Tree

I created this bed in a traditional hugelkulter. Dug the trench, laid the logs, filled it in.

Never again.

I’ve been building my style of hugelkulter for over a decade. But I finally tried making one the way you are supposed to make it.

I have a vole highway under these trees now. I’m setting out mouse traps, but I’ve never had a problem with voles in the other beds I make. (See how I do hugelkulter differently here: Hugelkulter bed.)

Anyway, the vole highway is making it hard to hydrate the trees. The south Texas sun is too hot for the big, almost tropical looking, leaves of my low chill cherries.

With the sun scorching the leaves and the voles adding tunnels (full of drying air) around the roots, these trees struggle in our summers. Last summer was brutal, on top of the planting issues. No rain and months over 100°F.

I decided I needed shade cloth. So, I built a pvc frame and anchored it by sliding the pipe over rebar. This year I glued the pvc together with pvc pipe glue. (Last year I was tired of messing with it and tried gorilla glue. It didn’t hold.)

Then I got out a step ladder and covered the frame with shade cloth. I clipped the cloth on with plastic clamps made for pvc. If you do this, make sure your clamps are the same diameter as your pipes. You can also use zip ties.

This is the finished project.

There’s a pomegranate thicket to the left of this and an incense bush to the right (which I’m having trouble killing. But it’s half hearted at this point because the bees love it.) Both add much needed shade for the cherries. I also put banana pups behind the cherries. Hopefully they will eventually provide some natural shade mid-day. They are currently sprouting and look happy. I also had my sprinkler, on this side, fixed so there’s water back here now.

Anyway I think these may start producing next spring. I’m super excited to have productive sweet cherries on my property.

Meet you out in the garden to spit cherry pits.

Crazy Green Thumbs