My wife is a master gardener at 5500' elevation in AZ. If the monsoon happens (50% chance) then there are two difficult months, May and June. June is the real bitch. Highs in the high 90s, hot winds out of the southwest everyday, and no clouds. If the monsoon fails (again 50% chance) then every month is difficult.
She grows many varieties of tomatoes, okra, blackberries, three kinds of eggplant, basil, cilantro, and many varieties of beans.
It's AZ, so of course there is a cornucopia of chiles, and garlic.
Peaches and the other stone fruits are more dependent on the weather in Feb. (it snows here).
Here are the techniques: partial shade from large trees, shade cloth over seedlings, timers on the drip, and the drip runs three times a day in June. Missing a single irrigation day in June means death to the garden. She does have some spray heads but most of the garden is just drip. Oh, and you can't plant too early, we've lost an entire bed of tomato seedlings to frost in May! That seems like it's a diminishing problem, however.
The soil is the kitchen/garden compost + a few bags of water retention garden soil every year.
I have seen gardens in Phoenix in the summer and the only possibility is full shade cloth over just about everything.
The water is just city water, it's expensive. $100/month May-Sep. Because we're food snobs, and the flavors and textures are so much better, it's worth it. There's a lot of work in the spring getting everything going, and we joke about the "garden nazi" in Sep-Oct, where the harvest pretty much demands constant processing (which I do). But the middle 3 months are less than 1/2 hr/day.
If you're curious about your local growing environment and how to deal with it, the local university agricultural extension are the goto folks. They literally exist to help you with this.
It might just be the sun burning your plants, which droplets of water would only make worse (by acting as a lens). Try hanging shade cloth above them. It's what I have to do here in California for tomatoes, especially at higher elevations
She grows many varieties of tomatoes, okra, blackberries, three kinds of eggplant, basil, cilantro, and many varieties of beans. It's AZ, so of course there is a cornucopia of chiles, and garlic.
Peaches and the other stone fruits are more dependent on the weather in Feb. (it snows here).
Here are the techniques: partial shade from large trees, shade cloth over seedlings, timers on the drip, and the drip runs three times a day in June. Missing a single irrigation day in June means death to the garden. She does have some spray heads but most of the garden is just drip. Oh, and you can't plant too early, we've lost an entire bed of tomato seedlings to frost in May! That seems like it's a diminishing problem, however. The soil is the kitchen/garden compost + a few bags of water retention garden soil every year.
I have seen gardens in Phoenix in the summer and the only possibility is full shade cloth over just about everything.
The water is just city water, it's expensive. $100/month May-Sep. Because we're food snobs, and the flavors and textures are so much better, it's worth it. There's a lot of work in the spring getting everything going, and we joke about the "garden nazi" in Sep-Oct, where the harvest pretty much demands constant processing (which I do). But the middle 3 months are less than 1/2 hr/day.
If you're curious about your local growing environment and how to deal with it, the local university agricultural extension are the goto folks. They literally exist to help you with this.