Lollykoko you are correct but my berries hadn't finished fruiting when the extreme heat hit - I didn't want to cut them back until much later because I figured that even though the top of the plant was getting crispy, the more ground cover that I maintained the better for the survival of the plant. I lost half of my raspberry plants but the survivors are OK - we've had severe thunderstorms for the past 2 days so my garden has received a good natural soaking
pa_friendly_guy the ground didn't stay damp very long at all. I hand watered late at night to give the plants more time to absorb the water but even that didn't stop the damage being done. During the really hot days we've had here there has been strong northerly winds which were really hot and seemed to strip every ounce of moisture from the garden (even my succulents didn't survive because they were too young/small to withstand the heat). I am thinking seriously about the hugelbeds as a way to ensure that the fruit trees survive......is it possible to make hugelbeds around established fruit trees (without transplanting them) or will I damage them? Even my raised and mulched beds didn't help the vegetable garden because the wind dried out the soil during the day even though I watered most nights by hand and I was giving them a really good soaking.
I left the natural vegetation (weeds) that grew where I hadn't made a garden just to protect the soil, but even the weeds couldn't survive with what we've had here. All of the established native trees/shrubs survived really well as did the huge old oak, it was only the "introduced" species that struggled. My apples, banana and orange trees are doing great - peach, mandarine & plums not so great! Sounds like another "learning experience" doesn't it