We had a heat wave here last weekend, with temperatures in the hundreds. My dad and stepmom came to visit and I joked that we might have to water ourselves down with the hose all weekend.

My dad joked that we might need to eat ice cream all weekend to survive, an even better idea. So we made some homemade ice cream. Not only did we survive the heat, but we made the weekend fun.

We were concerned about the garden with the coming heat, and put shade cloth over the greenhouse to keep the plants from cooking. Jeff also got sections of remay ready, which is thin white fabric made of polyester. (I’ve seen it spelled Remay and also Reemay.)

Remay is often used in the garden to protect from pests or frost. I used to think of it as something you use in the wintertime for frost protection, but it’s a helpful tool in the garden in the summertime as well, which I’ve been seeing more and more over the years.

Remay works great to help reflect light and keep the plants cooler in the heat. For us, it has worked better than shade cloth. We draped remay over many of the garden beds. The garden beds that were nearest to the cattle panel trellises (in the pictures), gave us something to clip the remay to, and Jeff built frames to keep the remay off the plants.

We found the remay we used at a local garden center, and there are many sources online as well. The thickness of the fabric and amount of light it lets through can vary (some allow 75% light transmission), something we’ve noticed from different ones we’ve purchased over the years. We store ours when it’s not in use, and it gets used over and over again.

On the hottest day (106 degrees) we jumped in the river with friends, and it was amazing how different the intense heat felt when we were comfortable in the water. This last Wednesday the temps went back down, and it was a relief.

The heat was so intense, we had plants completely laying flat in the garden. We did end up losing a few plant starts (there was no remay over those), some of the bigger plants we were concerned about did pull through, and overall the garden ended up doing really well through the heat. Thanks to all the watering Jeff did, and thanks to the remay.

The remay made all the difference! We are sure there would have been a lot of loss in the garden without it.

So much love goes into the garden, and we’re grateful when we find ways to help protect the plants. The remay helped the garden immensely through the heat wave, and we wanted to share about it in case you are wanting to find a way to help protect your garden in intense heat!