u/picklegrabber

Part of my garden sits against a retaining well and I’m in a new build area so there aren’t any mature trees to shade. It bakes in my backyard and most things struggle to live in those boxes including tomatoes, peppers, eggplants. I put shade cloth up but during the heat waves everything just either doesn’t fruit or dies.

I’ve decided perhaps the heat and reflection from the retaining wall is a problem I can tackle. Considering making a cob (sp?) to spackle against the wall in hopes of cooling it and adding a trellis behind the vegetable boxes to have a vining plant go up to try to keep it a bit cooler

Ideally I’d like something native but I can’t find anything online. I was thinking star jasmine but the internet say it struggles above 100 degrees and it routinely gets and stays that hot for days as we know.

I was planning on asking at green acres but checking you folks to see if you had any suggestions or ideas.

Thanks!

Edit: thanks for all your suggestions so far. I’ve neglected to say that I have two cats that are pretty much indoor only but do spend some time in the backyard while I’m out back. I found out many of the vines are toxic to cats including honeysuckle and clematis. My plan is to set up the irrigation, deep mulch, set up a less porous shade cloth, and see what happens. I plan on living in my home for many more years so I can keep adjusting as needed.