Beginner Gardening: How to grow cool climate vegetables in hot climate regions?, 1 by Shaktiye

Shaktiye wrote:
Hi all,

I am currently on a long term stay overseas in a country that has 4 seasons: Summer, summer, summer and summer.

It is in Sri Lanka, very near to the equator, with LOTs of rain, thus very humid too.

The vegetable garden I have started is for a meditation center in the remote area, and finally striking out to become a green finger.

I have no problem sprouting cool weather seeds, but my question is how do I prevent vegetables like spinach and brocolli from bolting and lettuce from becoming bitterly hard? I read that it is the soil temperature at the roots that causes that.

Provide more shade? Set up an air conditioned greenhouse?

I bought lots of non-GMO and heirloom seeds from the USA, and will really like to harvest all of them to offer to the center's nuns and retreatants.

The attached image is a smaller garden I am still working on, doing double dig on a clay ground, adding as much compost as I can gather. The beds will be raised a little by bordering them with bamboo stakes for aesthetic touch.