This Adorable Umbrella Hack Might Just Save Your Plants This Summer

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Summer can be a great time for gardens to flourish, but sometimes, the plants can't take the excessive heat and sunshine. They especially start to have issues when the temperature reaches 85 to 90 degrees Fahrenheit. Too much sunlight can cause discoloration or even leave you needing to salvage your sunburnt plants. Others may have dried-out, brown edges, which is a hallmark of leaf scorch caused by dry, bright, and sunny weather. Your garden plants may wilt in the summer heat, too. That means, much like humans, your flowers and foliage need some shade in the sun, too.

To remedy this issue, viral videos on TikTok have shown users using plant umbrellas, which are smaller versions of the umbrellas people use in the rain and are built specifically for plants to shield gardens from the harsh sun. At the same time, the umbrellas add a cute pop of color to your mostly-green garden.

Plant umbrellas, specifically the ones @MaggiesFarmNola used in her garden: Tryly Plant Umbrellas come in bright, pastel colors like blue, pink, and yellow. All you have to do is strategically place them around your garden to provide some shade to flowers and fruiting plants. The umbrellas differ from your usual rainy-day umbrella, with an H-shaped stake at the end that allows you to easily stick them into the soil next to or around the plant you want to protect.

However, this doesn't mean you have to use special plant umbrellas to provide shade for your plants. One TikTok user tried this hack with Cooking Concepts food tents and used landscape staples to fix them into the ground and provide garden shade. Other TikTokers chose not to buy any new materials and instead used a regular rainy-day umbrella to protect their garden during a heatwave. Umbrellas are just one of many DIY sun shades to keep your plants cool during the unrelenting summer heat.