watering plants that are in the ground can be counterproductive. You need to water newly planted ones - depending on how big they are that could be a year (e.g. a young tree) and ones in pots. Some annual vegetables won't be as productive if you don't water them (runner beans). But everything else, watering them makes them more prone to wilting in short dry spells. Prolonged drought is a different problem - you need to change the plants.
Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
Hi @raisingirl, I do understand this in principle. I watered them 5 days ago because they were wilting then too. As a matter of principle, I'm not interested in watering my borders for the sake of it (I'd rather spend that time gardening!) Looking at that pic though, would you just leave them to it?
I have a lot of respect for @raisingirl, but she's wrong about watering. You need to water to suit YOUR conditions. My garden is waterlogged for much of winter and early spring but bone-dry by late May. There are very few plants that can cope with this without any support and I water as much as I can. If you have a dry garden, you plant drought-tolerant plants. If you have a wet garden, you plant things that like boggy soil. But if you have both conditions, you need to be adaptable.
We have a stream at the end of the garden. It comes straight off the Clwydian hills. It's running very very low. Yet the back lawn is looking quite lush.
Same dry situation here. We had some rain tuesday but the garden seems to have gone into autumn mode. Everthing was a month early and finished quickly: I even picked a handful of autumn raspberries usually not ready before September. Very few mirabelles on the tree (usually buckets) and fewer strawberries. There are plants that are doing well, the usual salvias, sedum, bonariensis, californian poppy, thyme. Hypericum Elstead has flowered and the lovely cherry coloured berries are 2 months early.
June's rainfall levels were low across much of England, as you might imagine. South London had 36% of the long term average. The west of England is distinctly wetter than the east.
A total of 46 stations across the UK exceeded the
previous UK record of 38.7°C. Many long-running stations with 100+ year
records recorded their highest ever temperature, some by extraordinary
margins of 3 to 4°C. Records were set overnight too [with] a new highest minimum temperature of
25.8°C. New provisional national temperature records were
also set for Wales and Scotland. On 18 July, 37.1°C was recorded at
Hawarden Airport, Flintshire, while 35.1°C was reached at Floors Castle,
Borders on 19 July.
UK heat records have been broken three times since the turn of the century, having previously stood for 80 years.
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“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
Looking at that pic though, would you just leave them to it?
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
If you have a dry garden, you plant drought-tolerant plants. If you have a wet garden, you plant things that like boggy soil. But if you have both conditions, you need to be adaptable.
It's running very very low. Yet the back lawn is looking quite lush.
There are plants that are doing well, the usual salvias, sedum, bonariensis, californian poppy, thyme. Hypericum Elstead has flowered and the lovely cherry coloured berries are 2 months early.
Luxembourg
UK heat records have been broken three times since the turn of the century, having previously stood for 80 years.
https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/about-us/press-office/news/weather-and-climate/2022/july-heat-review