I’ve never known a drought like this one in my part of the East Midlands. Much of the forecast rain over the past few months by-passed my garden, but I hope others benefitted.
Looking out onto my back garden, a great swathe of lawn is brown. I’ve had brown patches develop in the past during very dry periods, but nothing like this. Yes, I know this is really the grass protecting itself, and that it will grow back, but for now it looks dreadful.
The lawn is really the least of my problems. Many well established shrubs carry crisp, brown leaves, and one has lost them all completely. What is normally a beautiful flowering shrub called Viburnum ‘Mariesii’ produced little bloom in May, since when the foliage has simply dried up and dropped off.
Again, I’m hoping that as this is a deciduous shrub this is simply its way of surviving drought. By losing its leaves it protects itself from dehydration, and when moisture does arrive (as it surely will) a new flush of foliage will grow. For now, though, it’s hardly helping create the sort of summer spectacle I usually enjoy.
As editor of BBC Gardeners’ World magazine I rely on my garden to provide a practical photo studio in which to take pictures to illustrate the magazine. Virtually all the pictures in the What to do now section of the magazine are taken in my garden. It’s not massive, and I don’t have any help looking after it, so it has to be run just as anyone else working full-time would run their garden.
No, I can’t water the whole thing just to keep it looking like a show garden. That would be totally impractical, unrealistic and artificial. Gardeners’ World magazine is about ‘real’ gardening, and sharing problems and their solutions is part of the relationship we have with our readers.
Yes, it does take me a good hour a day watering my patio pots, baskets, outdoor tomatoes and greenhouse, but the rest of the garden has to fend for itself.
The consequences of this are that coping with the weather, whatever it delivers (or doesn’t), are what gardening is all about. As they say, we’re all in the same boat, although this year it is certainly grounded on dry land in my neck of the woods.
Oh, how I dream of a normal British summer, whatever that may be.
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It’s really interesting reading this as a new gardener. (Although not really a problem up in Aberdeen – so far) The first thing I would do would be to go out and water it, I would be concerned that it wouldn’t grow back. So much to learn!
We have a group of 4 lilys growing in our garden which are over six feet tall is this a record
Living in the South East, I can sympathise with you Adam, we have missed all the rain for two months now, and some of the less established shrubs are looking a bit sick. The lawn is awful, dried to a crisp, but it will come back when the rain returns, I hope. Still, looking at the positives, not having to cut the grass does give me more time to tote water to the tubs, containers and baskets, which look fantastic, obviously enjoying the weather and my water carrying labours. No doubt we will be moaning about the wet or cold soon. The real irony is that, I spent a lot of time putting drainage under the lawn in the spring. Oh! and sorry Bob, but my lilies are at least seven feet high this year. Whats going on with them, they normally struggle to make four feet.
My tiger lilies were unusually tall but nothing to do with the weather as i grow them in the conservatory to avoid the lily beetle – must be the bulbs having the tall gene in them, I think. The drought was long and hard in Bristol too and I watered the essentials as I saw it but was pleased to see my new asparagus plants have made it and the runner beans are recovering. With veg. I think the secret is lots of horse manure in the soil.
Can’t agree with you more about the value of adding manure to your soil, happymarion. I am a fan of using peat-free composts as mulches around veg (and flowers), but these do not add the ‘quality’ or organic matter to soil that manure does.
They are often so coarse, and don’t create enhance the humus content of soil that manure does. Home-made compost is also good, but again this is different to manure.
What do others think?
Can’t agree with you
I am having terrible problems with runner beans this year. they don’t seeem to climb … the leaves are curling with a sort of mosaic-type pattern. I’ve been watering as best I can.
One of the things I’ve been doing is amending my soil…good soil seems to help. I get my garden soil here because I like that they make it themselves and the quality keeps everything looking great through the summer. Thanks for the beautiful post! Time to water the garden!
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Well folks I lugg the water from the bath even though I am still in the war years and only use a few inches of water, I scoop it out with a plastic jug into a watering can, only water my pot plants with it every thing else has to take pot luck.
Water saving tip from Australia! To catch precious water that usually goes straight down the plughole, use a plastic bucket to catch the first minute or two of shower water before it warms up & similarly when washing up. Also save water used to rinse salad and veg (colander over platic jug). You’ll be amazed how much there is. Easy to just pop and and water the pots with it!
I live in West London and not only do I have brown patches but I also have cracks in the lawn for the first time ever. Its all I can do to keep my plants alive.
Another way to kill the lawn is to own a dog!!! I can’t remeber when my lawn was last green and lush ..
Even here in the southern Hebrides we were desperately short of water – apparently it was the driest first half of the year on record. There were huge brown patches in my grass too, especially where the soil is shallow over rock. The greenest bits were where the clover grows. I’ve got too large an area to bother removing it so I just mow over it every week – not too short because the bees love the flowers. In May and early June the buttercup flowers attract the (relatively rare) marsh fritillary butterflies too. Anyway, it looks much prettier than a manicured green sward (that’s my excuse).
Can’t get manure here – even if it were available I wouldn’t want to lug it four miles over rough terrain, but there’s no shortage of seaweed. I don’t put it on the grass, but it’s wonderful on the vegetable patch and on the compost heap.
Hi, I live in West Sussex,UK and we have not had a good rainstorm for 3 months!!.I planted potatoes (Homeguard variety) and they have grown well.However, when cooked they go to mush.One minute they are not cooked and the next minute they are mush.I have watered the whole vegetable garden, religiously, every night, for the last 2 months. Does anyone have an answer to my “mushy potatoes problem” please? Many thanks.
We have had rain in the Preston area almost every day for the last month. It has been more like early winter than summer here.
The last time we had a relatively “hot” day was on the 3rd July. How do I know that? Because that was the day when I started to paint my window frames outside, and I’ve been waiting for a dry, warm day ever since to apply the gloss coat.
We have even had floods around here recently – and yet we still have a hosepipe ban in force.
My back garden is partly flooded right now, and my lawn is soggy, as I found out when I ran across it in my socks to shoo away a cat who was about to use my flower bed as a toilet!
I’ve even had to switch the heating on in the house a couple of times recently – in the middle of summer!
Reply to Star Rocker: Please send some of your surplus rain down to the East Midlands. I’ve never experienced such dry conditions here, and so many trees and shrubs are looking miserable and dropping their leaves.
What a difference in conditions across the country.
Many apologies for blogging about drought if you are being flooded! These weather extremes really are causing problems for gardeners everywhere.
Very interesting thread on the drought situation in parts of UK. It could make you feel better if you can get rid of the lawn ! We previously gardened in east Yorkshire and drought arrived every summer. Now we are living in southern Portugal and drought is a normal part of the summer, it is constantly amazing how plants adapt and cope – don’t give up hope !
Can anyome tell me why when I have 2 Japanese acers in the same patch of soil that one comes through green when it was origially bought as red and the old one that was there is still a beautifull red
Interesting to follow your drought in the midlands. I’m in Massachusetts and facing exactly the same conditions. My Viburnum is also looking sadder and sadder and with our water ban, I can only hand water shrubs and flowers. The grass cracks when I walk on it. Our summers have been too cool & wet for the past 3 summers. We loved the sun and heat in June, but this is just tooooo long to go without more than a 20 minute sprinkle every 3-4 weeks.
Welcome rain arrived last week, and the lawn is already looking green again in most areas. It’s amazing how quickly grass recovers, although trees and shrubs that have lost their foliage probably won’t recover this year.