A good percentage of all the plants we grow are not native to the UK, gardeners go in for the latest in mode plant not asking where it grows best, the conditions they need. Plants in hot countries often grow in arid soil and thrive the soft ones come when it is cool and then vanish until the next season. Gardeners take the weather as it is given and my Dad always dug masses of fibrous manure into his land, it held the water giving the plants a chance. These days of which is the easiest quickest way of having a TV make over garden the lack of preparation shows. I saw masses of green vegetation in very hot countries because the farmers prepared the ground, knew what conditions the plants needed and ran trickles of any water available along the plant roots where it is needed. When Water is always rationed as it was with us you learn to use it sparingly I even washed my clothes in petrol of which we had plenty, hung to dry in the desert wind the smell soon blew away. Lawns and plants will recover just leave them alone, soft plants will die, that is life, put in plants that can live in our conditions after all this kind of weather only happens once in a decade. Frank.
Well cheers for the vote of confidence, Frank . So are you saying I should grow plants that like these conditions (and probably won't like normal UK rain levels), or grow plants that will like normal variations and then just let them die in this drought? I don't want my plants to die, really. Apart from the expense (time and money), I like plants. So I'm doing what I can to keep them alive until this weather passes. Perhaps that makes me an awful, modern, quickfix makeover type!
'If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.'
If your plants survived The Beast from the East followed by the dryest summer in decades then they're not going to have to tackle much worse. I've had the best display of sedum and sempervivum flowers this year if nothing else. It's also amazing to see how native 'weeds' just seem to shrug this weather off considering it is abnormal for them.
If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
Am with you Hosta, Hubby put up a new fence in April, couple of ton of top soil, planted up, shrubs,perennials, some annuals, mostly bouI planted up a woodland, bit which only gets the sun early morning, normally damp, with Rodgersias,special primulas, they alone cost £100.bought at nurseries, or plants sales at charity open days, so a lot cheaper than garden centres, I have always tried to save water, the old "let it mellow thing", full wash load, sate of the art LG uses minimal water, I have stopped daily/shower hair wash, just wsh in small basin of water Hubby works in a garage gets filthy but is only showering on work days, we have 20 year old rhododenrdons, which arent replaceable, a grapfruit he grew froma pip 20 years ago, DEFINITELY not replaceable thats really special. We have a lots few things.I have a friend who complains her husband wont water the garden because it costs money last year my water bill went from £11, to £15 a month in the summer £1 a week extra, like you my plants are worth thouands/ Was really angry 2 neighbours, in their 30s on Saturday one had a sprinkler on his "lawn", south facing and in full sun, I used the speach marks because its full of weeds, not a bowling green! The bloke 2 doors from him was washing his van with a hose. I dread to think what will happen if it gets to the 1976 level.Wild edges, even my wild flower area looks half dead!
Think about it. This country was filled with foliage plants for millennia long before we started to grow food. We as Hunter gatherers lived on what we foraged among the wild berries roots and edible plants. Those plants came in season and as people started to farm the land they learned to live with the seasons as did my Farmer Uncles and my Father who produced food for the family. They did have gardens and grew flowers as I have said before, i grew up with masses of Peony, Lily's, Chrysanthemum and all the normal spring and summer flowers some of which would be Victorian plant hunter in comers. They knew what thrived and what was a waste of time though Dad's motto of "if you cannot eat it or sell it do not grow it" was ringing in my ears when i set my gardens. This year the garden has been a riot of colour and still is, I do not spend money on buying the latest fad and knowing the local conditions I sow or plant accordingly. We in the N.E. always have to take the North sea into our calculations, getting morning sea mists helped the lawns and we have it a few degrees warmer in winter, six inches of snow when ten miles inland they are snowed in. We all do it our own way so it is your choice, if i lose a couple of plants hard luck I plant in the space provided and get on with life. Frank.
We all do it our own way so it is your choice, if i lose a couple of plants hard luck I plant in the space provided and get on with life. Frank.
I agree with you Frank, for almost everyone that's true. But as I said on another thread, it's not true for everyone - the holders of National Collections and people like Hosta who have very large collections of quite rare plants deserve some special consideration. If my whole garden died, I could buy it all again from the local Garden centre (subject to funds, of course, but I don't have anything that's hard to come by here) and I won't starve, so there's no sense in me using precious water to keep it alive. But it's not universally true and I don't begrudge a few 'special' cases being made.
Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
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And it would take too much water to try to help them thrive, so it really is just enough to stop them dying.
Gardeners take the weather as it is given and my Dad always dug masses of fibrous manure into his land, it held the water giving the plants a chance. These days of which is the easiest quickest way of having a TV make over garden the lack of preparation shows.
I saw masses of green vegetation in very hot countries because the farmers prepared the ground, knew what conditions the plants needed and ran trickles of any water available along the plant roots where it is needed.
When Water is always rationed as it was with us you learn to use it sparingly I even washed my clothes in petrol of which we had plenty, hung to dry in the desert wind the smell soon blew away.
Lawns and plants will recover just leave them alone, soft plants will die, that is life, put in plants that can live in our conditions after all this kind of weather only happens once in a decade.
Frank.
This year the garden has been a riot of colour and still is, I do not spend money on buying the latest fad and knowing the local conditions I sow or plant accordingly. We in the N.E. always have to take the North sea into our calculations, getting morning sea mists helped the lawns and we have it a few degrees warmer in winter, six inches of snow when ten miles inland they are snowed in.
We all do it our own way so it is your choice, if i lose a couple of plants hard luck I plant in the space provided and get on with life.
Frank.
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”