#summer care

[succygirl]

“Hot Summer Care for Succulents and Dormancy Tips” Thought some people would enjoy seeing this^ I don’t live in an area where it gets THAT hot so I’m unfamiliar with how to deal with the heat. My area is very temperate but it’s good to know in case I move (I’d rather not though) or someone from an area like that needs advice! 

[merrybarkstudio]

Dogs In Hot Cars And Hot Pavement

Every year, dogs suffer and die when their guardians make the mistake of leaving them in a parked car—even for “just a minute”—while they run an errand. Parked cars are deathtraps for dogs: On a 78-degree day, the temperature inside a parked car can soar to 100 degrees in just minutes, and on a 90-degree day, the interior temperature can reach as high as 109 degrees in less than 10 minutes.

Animals can sustain brain damage or even die from heatstroke in just 15 minutes. Beating the heat is extra tough for dogs because they can only cool themselves by panting.

If you see a dog left alone in a hot car, take down the car’s color, model, make, and license plate number. Have the owner paged in the nearest buildings, or call local humane authorities or police. Have someone keep an eye on the dog. Don’t leave the scene until the situation has been resolved.

If the authorities are unresponsive or too slow and the dog’s life appears to be in imminent danger, find a witness (or several) who will back up your assessment, take steps to remove the suffering animal from the car, and then wait for authorities to arrive.

Watch for heatstroke symptoms such as restlessness, excessive thirst, thick saliva, heavy panting, lethargy, lack of appetite, dark tongue, rapid heartbeat, fever, vomiting, bloody diarrhea, and lack of coordination. If a dog shows any of these symptoms, get him or her out of the heat, preferably into an air-conditioned vehicle, and then to a veterinarian immediately. If you are unable to transport the dog yourself, take him or her into an air-conditioned building if possible and call animal control: Tell them it is an emergency.

Provide water to drink, and if possible spray the dog with a garden hose or immerse him or her in a tub of cool (but not iced) water for up to two minutes in order to lower the body temperature gradually. You can also place the dog in front of an electric fan. Applying cool, wet towels to the groin area, stomach, chest, and paws can also help. Be careful not to use ice or cold water, and don’t overcool the animal.

When walking your dog, keep in mind that if it feels hot enough to fry an egg outside, it probably is. When the air temperature is 86 degrees, the asphalt can reach a sizzling 135 degrees — more than hot enough to cook an egg in five minutes. And it can do the same to our canine companions’ sensitive foot pads.

On an 87-degree day, asphalt temperatures can reach 140 degrees, hot enough to cause burns, permanent damage and scarring after just one minute of contact. Rapid burns and blistering can occur at 150 degrees. Hot sidewalks, pavement and parking lots can not only burn paws, they also reflect heat onto dogs’ bodies , increasing their risk of deadly heatstroke.

If you wouldn’t put your dog in a frying pan, please don’t make him or her walk on hot pavement. Always test the pavement with your hand before setting out (too hot to touch is too hot for Spot), walk early in the morning or late at night when it’s cooler, carry water and take frequent breaks in shady spots and never make dogs wear muzzles that restrict their breathing.

[itslikeibelong]

A few reminders for my beautiful followers! Please stay safe in summer my lovelies 🐝 Please do not remove my caption but feel free to add your own rules! ☀️

[middletownnjarborists]

What I Actually Do Each Week During a Dry New Jersey Summer to Keep My Trees Going

This is not an expert guide. It is what I actually do, as a homeowner in Monmouth County with nine trees on my property -- two of which I planted in the last three years and therefore feel more actively responsible for than the older ones that were here when I bought the house.

My goal through July and August is to get through without losing anything and without watching something decline so badly that it takes three years to recover. Here is the routine that has worked for me, with a few notes about what changed my thinking along the way.

The Check I Do Once a Week

On a Monday morning, before it gets hot, I walk the yard with a screwdriver -- the longer ones reach deeper into the soil -- and probe the ground near each tree I am actively monitoring. I push the screwdriver into the ground at roughly the drip line, which is the outer edge of where the canopy ends, not right next to the trunk.

If the screwdriver goes in easily and comes out with damp soil on the shaft, that tree is fine for now. I skip it entirely and move on.

If the screwdriver hits resistance at two to three inches and comes out dry, that tree needs water before the next heat stretch arrives.

This simple check changed my entire approach to summer tree care. I used to water everything on a fixed schedule, and I was almost certainly overwatering some trees while underwatering others -- following a calendar instead of responding to what was actually happening in the soil. A few minutes of checking saved me probably a third of my watering time and eliminated the second-guessing about which trees were getting too much or too little.

The Trees I Watch Most Closely

My two newest trees -- a flowering dogwood I planted last spring and a serviceberry I put in three years ago -- get the most attention. The dogwood is in partial shade and has been fine so far, but I check it every week without exception because dogwoods have a well-deserved reputation for showing drought stress fast and without much warning. The serviceberry is in more sun, showed some leaf curl during the hottest stretches last summer, and gets watered whenever the Monday check says the soil at depth is dry.

My silver maple, which has been here for at least fifteen years, gets almost no supplemental water from me. It drooped a bit two summers ago but recovered on its own within a few weeks of decent rainfall. My two oaks get nothing at all from me -- they've been here far longer than I have and clearly know what they're doing.

The ornamentals are the ones that need active judgment through summer, not the big established natives.

How I Water When the Check Says a Tree Needs It

I move the hose to the drip line area -- not the trunk, not the center of the canopy, but the outer edge where the branches end -- and set it to a slow trickle. I leave it in one spot for about forty-five minutes, then move it to a different sector of the drip line perimeter. For a medium-sized tree, I try to cover three or four spots around the drip line over the course of a session.

For the dogwood, which is small enough that this is practical, I use a watering bag once a week during dry spells. It takes five minutes to fill and releases water slowly over several hours, which is more efficient than running a hose and then having to come back to move it.

The key thing I learned the hard way, by watching trees not respond to what I thought was adequate watering: watering at the trunk does almost nothing for an established tree. All those roots spreading out under the lawn and into the surrounding soil are where the water needs to go, and most of them are not near the trunk at all.

Photo by Alexey Demidov on Pexels

The Change That Made the Biggest Difference

Adding a proper mulch ring out to the drip line on my two newest trees changed how often I needed to water them. Before I did it, the soil around the serviceberry would be bone dry two days after a thorough watering session during a heat wave. After adding three inches of wood chip mulch from about six inches out from the trunk all the way to the drip line, the soil stayed damp for four to five days after the same amount of water. The mulch was doing most of what irrigation was trying to accomplish on its own.

If you are watering twice a week and still finding your trees stressed by mid-week, look at whether you have adequate mulch over the root zone before adding more watering sessions. It is probably the single highest-leverage change you can make this summer without spending much money or time.

What I Do If a Tree Looks Bad Despite Regular Attention

When I see a tree looking significantly worse than expected -- wilting in the morning rather than just in the afternoon, or showing heavy leaf drop that does not seem proportional to how dry it has been -- my first step is to probe the soil more carefully and check whether water is actually penetrating to root depth or pooling on the surface and evaporating.

If the soil probe shows moisture is getting through and the tree is still looking bad, that is when I shift from irrigation troubleshooting to wondering whether something else is going on. Root issues, fungal problems, and soil compaction effects can all look like drought stress from a distance.

Resources That Have Actually Been Useful

Rutgers Cooperative Extension's NJ Agricultural Experiment Station has some of the most practical tree care materials I have found that are specific to New Jersey's climate and soil conditions. They cover the species we actually have in our yards and the soil types common to Monmouth County without trying to sell anything.

The International Society of Arboriculture also has homeowner-facing resources on summer drought stress and what to look for in your trees that are worth reading if you want a deeper understanding of what is happening in a stressed tree.

For trees I am genuinely worried about -- anything showing significant stress or symptoms I cannot explain -- I have talked to the arborists at Middletown Tree Service for an assessment. That has been useful a couple of times when I was not sure whether what I was seeing was drought stress that better irrigation could fix, or something deeper that needed a different approach.

Hufnagel Tree Service also operates in this part of NJ if you are looking for a professional opinion or an arborist who covers a different part of Monmouth County. Both companies know the local species and site conditions well.

The Honest Version of This

Most of my trees do not need me to do anything through summer. The established oaks and the silver maple have been here long enough and developed extensive enough root systems that they handle NJ summers without my help. The ones I am actively managing are the newly planted specimens and the drought-sensitive ornamentals that have not yet built the root depth and spread to buffer against dry spells on their own. Check weekly. Water deeply and slowly when the soil check says something is dry. Keep drip line areas mulched. Skip trees that do not need attention. The trees that need more than this kind of straightforward maintenance are the ones with underlying problems -- soil, root, or site issues -- that basic irrigation cannot resolve on its own, and those are worth getting a professional eye on.

[aajkesamachar2026]

भीषण गर्मी में सूख रहे हैं आपके पौधे? इन 6 मुफ्त देसी जुगाड़ से आपका गार्डन फिर हो जाएगा हरा-भरा

Lifestyle News: मई-जून की चिलचिलाती धूप और गर्म हवाएं न केवल हमें, बल्कि हमारे प्यारे पौधों को भी झुलसा देती हैं। यदि सही देखभाल न की जाए, तो हरे-भरे पौधे भी कुछ ही दिनों में सूखने लगते हैं। गार्डनिंग एक्सपर्ट्स के अनुसार, कुछ आसान और मुफ्त के देसी तरीकों को अपनाकर आप अपने होम गार्डन को इस भीषण गर्मी में भी सुरक्षित और तरोताजा रख सकते हैं। 1. छाया के लिए मुफ्त जुगाड़ पौधों को सीधी धूप से बचाने…

भीषण गर्मी में सूख रहे हैं आपके पौधे? इन 6 मुफ्त देसी जुगाड़ से आपका गार्डन फिर हो जाएगा हरा-भरा

[rightnewshp]

भीषण गर्मी में सूख रहे हैं आपके पौधे? इन 6 मुफ्त देसी जुगाड़ से आपका गार्डन फिर हो जाएगा हरा-भरा

Lifestyle News: मई-जून की चिलचिलाती धूप और गर्म हवाएं न केवल हमें, बल्कि हमारे प्यारे पौधों को भी झुलसा देती हैं। यदि सही देखभाल न की जाए, तो हरे-भरे पौधे भी कुछ ही दिनों में सूखने लगते हैं। गार्डनिंग एक्सपर्ट्स के अनुसार, कुछ आसान और मुफ्त के देसी तरीकों को अपनाकर आप अपने होम गार्डन को इस भीषण गर्मी में भी सुरक्षित और तरोताजा रख सकते हैं। 1. छाया के लिए मुफ्त जुगाड़ पौधों को सीधी धूप से बचाने…

भीषण गर्मी में सूख रहे हैं आपके पौधे? इन 6 मुफ्त देसी जुगाड़ से आपका गार्डन फिर हो जाएगा हरा-भरा

[helpfularticle]

So you're pregnant AND it's summer? Yeah, same. Here's how to survive (and actually feel okay).

Why does summer feel 10x harder right now? (Spoiler: not your fault)

Okay, let's be real. Everyone keeps saying "pregnancy is beautiful" and it is, but when it's 35°C outside with humidity that makes your hair curl instantly? Beautiful starts to feel... exhausting.

Here's what's actually happening inside your body right now:

Your blood volume has increased significantly. More blood = more heat.

Your metabolism is running faster. Even sitting still, you're generating more internal heat than before.

Your core body temperature is naturally higher due to pregnancy hormones.

So when the sun is blasting outside, your body has less room to cool itself down. That's why you feel dizzy faster, get tired more easily, and why dehydration can sneak up on you.

The takeaway? Your heat tolerance has genuinely dropped. This isn't weakness. It's biology. And once you accept that, you can stop pushing yourself and start protecting yourself.

Hydration is your actual superpower right now

Drinking water is important, but let's go deeper. You need more fluids than usual—not just to feel less thirsty, but to:

Maintain healthy amniotic fluid levels

Help your body regulate temperature

Deliver nutrients to your baby

How much? At least 8–10 glasses a day. More on hot days. And don't wait until you feel thirsty—thirst means dehydration has already started.

Now here's the good news. If you're in Tamil Nadu (or any hot climate), you have access to some amazing natural cooling drinks:

Tender coconut water – electrolytes, gentle on the stomach, naturally cooling

Fresh buttermilk – add a little ginger or curry leaves. So good.

Watermelon / muskmelon juice – hydrating + vitamins

Avoid: Sugary sodas, too much tea/coffee, and energy drinks. They actually make you lose more water.

Pro tip: Keep a water bottle visible at all times. If you see it, you'll sip it.

Dress, plan, and eat like summer is your roommate (not your enemy)

👚 What to wear

Tight, dark, synthetic clothes trap heat. Instead:

Loose cotton in light colours

Cotton sarees or salwar kameez are actually perfect

Light reflects sunlight. Dark absorbs it. Choose wisely.

🕒 When to go out

Between 11 AM and 4 PM? The sun is not your friend. Try to schedule walks, errands, and appointments:

Early morning (before 9 AM)

Late evening (after 5 PM)

If you have to go out midday: wide hat, umbrella, sunglasses, and water. Non-negotiable.

🥗 What to eat

Heavy, oily, very spicy food creates more metabolic heat when you digest it. That doesn't mean boring food—just smarter choices:

Smaller, more frequent meals

High-water fruits: cucumber, muskmelon, oranges, watermelon

Cooling veggies: ash gourd (poosanikai), ridge gourd (peerkangai)

Traditional staples: curd rice, koozh (fermented porridge), ragi dishes

You're still getting great nutrition—just without the internal heat spike.

Little things that actually cool you down (try these today)

You don't need anything fancy. These small actions work surprisingly well:

Cool shower (lukewarm is fine) once or twice a day

Damp cloth on your neck and wrists – major blood vessels are close to the skin there, so cooling them cools your whole body faster

Soak your feet in cool water for 10–15 minutes – trust me on this one

Sleep in a cool, ventilated room – cotton bedsheets, curtains drawn during afternoon

Also, know the warning signs of heat exhaustion (because it can happen faster during pregnancy):

Heavy sweating

Dizziness or rapid heartbeat

Nausea or headache

Skin that feels hot to the touch

If you feel these: move to a cool space, sip water slowly, lie down with feet slightly raised, and put a cool cloth on your forehead. If symptoms don't improve in 15–20 minutes? Call your doctor.

Don't skip your checkups (seriously, don't)

I know going out in the heat is a hassle. I know clinic visits feel tiring. But regular prenatal checkups become even more important during extreme summer.

Your doctor needs to check:

Hydration status

Blood pressure (heat can affect it)

Amniotic fluid levels

Signs of heat-related complications

And please be honest with your doctor about what you're feeling. Excessive swelling in your feet, unusual fatigue, reduced baby movements, persistent headaches—all of these can have a heat component.

A small but important mention: If you're in the Kumbakonam area and looking for a place that truly understands both pregnancy and the local climate challenges, Meera Maternity Centre provides advanced pregnancy care in Kumbakonam. They offer attentive prenatal checkups, fertility support, and personalised guidance—including practical advice for summer pregnancies. Having a care team that listens and adapts to your needs makes a real difference, especially when you're feeling drained by the heat.

You don't have to figure this out alone. A good maternity team will adjust your care plan, suggest cooling strategies, and keep a close eye on both you and your baby.

Rest is not optional. Read that again.

Let me say this clearly: rest is not laziness.

Your body is building an entire human being while also fighting summer heat. That is a huge task. You wouldn't tell a marathon runner to skip rest. Same applies here.

Aim for 7–9 hours of sleep at night

Take short 20–30 minute naps during the day if tired

Avoid heavy household work during peak heat hours

Light exercise is fine (prenatal yoga, gentle morning walk) – but stop if you feel overheated or breathless

Final thought, friend: Every glass of water you drink, every afternoon nap you take, every time you step into the shade instead of pushing through—you're not being "weak." You're being wise. And you're giving your baby the best possible start.

This summer can still be healthy and happy. One small choice at a time.

[skinandhaircareproducts1]

Simple Summer Skincare Routine with Effective Tips

  Hot weather often brings common skin concerns like tanning, excess oil, and uneven texture. Adopting a consistent summer skincare routine