I am going with more drought tolerant plants these days but have been amazed how long certain trees and shrubs are taking to settle in. I did a lot of ground prep but where you plant can be just as important as what you plant in. I have a small mature garden (inherited) and I have squeezed roses and apples into awkward spots and they taking years to cope on their own, even with good ground prep. It can depend on if the plants are
- in a rain shadow so they get little direct water
- competing close to other (mature) plants
- how close they are to walls, fences, other structures and underground pipes
- surrounded by paving etc
I don't think I would have chosen certain plants if I had known I would still be spoon feeding weekly years down the line.
Whether you water or not, the main thing is to water well, a lot of people will go out with the watering can or a sprinkle with the hose, they’ll wet the top half inch of soil, all that will do is encourage the roots to come up to the top to meet it, they need the struggle to go downwards to find it, so if you water, give loads once a week or so, not a tiddly bit every day.
Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor.
.....in my garden, which has poor sandy free draining soil.
Hi,
i think your question probably derives form the fact that you have sandy soil. ours is 'desert' like sand...water just pours through it. you're right to ask, because i don't think 'hard planting' will work for you in summer, potentially mid to late autumn would work.
strategies to help in our sandy garden....
-try planting in autumn more than other times. -new plants go in with loads of garden compost/water retentive materials at the same time. ( i use aged shreddded moss, garden compost, stables well rotted manure, as well as spent compost, leaf mold, ( with added FBB), anything really that's better than sand. -use more drought tolerant plants. -use pots near your tap if you want more water-loving stuff. -plant up full beds at once, not odd plants here and there....harder to forget to water -dig deep sometimes, after years and year you might find the odd pocket of clay that can really help.
My soil is the opposite, a shallow layer of heavy clay, sitting on sometimes impenetrable rock. I try to ‘grow hard’ by planting only shrubs and perennials that are drought tolerant and suited to my growing conditions/warmer, often humid, climate. It’s been a huge learning curve as some things that should in theory thrive, don’t. Some surprising thrivers too.
I do the same deep soaking regime of plant and planting hole as madpenguin, but then water very deeply once a week. What constitutes a ‘deep water’ depends on the plant. For a shrubby salvia it might be 3 litres, whereas for a rose it’s 12. Only in very hot droughty summers do I water twice a week.
As others have said, it’s not just deep watering on it’s own, but a combination of strategies, such as picking the right plants, preparing and enriching the soil really well and mulching deeply. Plus, I need to dig in large quantities of grit to improve drainage.
I also divide the garden up into four watering zones and only water one at a time on any given day, the next zone the next day etc., to ensure I don’t get bored and skimp on the deep watering.
Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
I only water the veg and pots... Everything gets a good soak when planted and that's more or less it, unless it looks to be really struggling.
I'm on poor soil, but relatively wet here in Liverpool, although a lot of planting is near walls and fences as only a very small garden. I mainly plant drought-tolerant stuff in the sunny bits at the front, the soil is better in the shady bits at the back and primulas, hyrdangeas, astrantia all do well there.
The trickiest bit is under an overhang (our first floor is bigger than the ground floor). I've added some organic matter, and will continue to do so, but the soil is terrible, and it obviously doesn't get any rainfall, so I chuck the water from washing spuds or boiling veg (cooled) on it once every week or so. Things like verbena, achillea, ox-eye daisy, sedums, eryngium, lavender do reasonably well with these conditions.
Takes me long enough to water veg and pots - would never stop if I had to water everything else too, even in a small garden!
Never has the motto 'right plant, right place' been more appropriate @Nollie Your situation too @AndyDean. I think a lot more people are going to find they need to change their way of thinking re which plants they have. So many areas are really struggling with a lack of water, and others are getting flooded. Not everyone can afford to radically change a garden, but for some, they may have to make major changes. Hard if you don't have the time and budget - or the inclination. We seem to have had a lot more queries about dead grass and shrubs/trees this year than ever before.
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Never has the motto 'right plant, right place' been more appropriate @Nollie
Yes indeed! Fortunately I'm a big fan of all those drought-tolerant, pollinator friendly sorts of plants, so it works for me. Or at least it'll work in a couple of years time once I've got the balance right...
So true @Fairygirl, it’s taken a while to find the right plants for my place tho and I’m still experimenting. Achillea is one plant that requires a ridiculous amount of water to keep going and the colours fade very quickly in my heat. So here, it’s definitely not what I would describe as drought tolerant! Salvias, agastache, echinacea and heleniums do well. Geranium Rozanne cannot cope with the heat at all, lavender just turns up it’s toes the minute it’s planted, no matter how gritty the soil, astrantia, forget it!
Colour fade is a major issue for me in general so reds turn pink, oranges turn pink or yellow, purples turn pink. Tricky having a hot colour border!
Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
Posts
Hi,
i think your question probably derives form the fact that you have sandy soil. ours is 'desert' like sand...water just pours through it. you're right to ask, because i don't think 'hard planting' will work for you in summer, potentially mid to late autumn would work.
strategies to help in our sandy garden....
-try planting in autumn more than other times.
-new plants go in with loads of garden compost/water retentive materials at the same time. ( i use aged shreddded moss, garden compost, stables well rotted manure, as well as spent compost, leaf mold, ( with added FBB), anything really that's better than sand.
-use more drought tolerant plants.
-use pots near your tap if you want more water-loving stuff.
-plant up full beds at once, not odd plants here and there....harder to forget to water
-dig deep sometimes, after years and year you might find the odd pocket of clay that can really help.
hope that helps.
I do the same deep soaking regime of plant and planting hole as madpenguin, but then water very deeply once a week. What constitutes a ‘deep water’ depends on the plant. For a shrubby salvia it might be 3 litres, whereas for a rose it’s 12. Only in very hot droughty summers do I water twice a week.
As others have said, it’s not just deep watering on it’s own, but a combination of strategies, such as picking the right plants, preparing and enriching the soil really well and mulching deeply. Plus, I need to dig in large quantities of grit to improve drainage.
I also divide the garden up into four watering zones and only water one at a time on any given day, the next zone the next day etc., to ensure I don’t get bored and skimp on the deep watering.
I'm on poor soil, but relatively wet here in Liverpool, although a lot of planting is near walls and fences as only a very small garden. I mainly plant drought-tolerant stuff in the sunny bits at the front, the soil is better in the shady bits at the back and primulas, hyrdangeas, astrantia all do well there.
The trickiest bit is under an overhang (our first floor is bigger than the ground floor). I've added some organic matter, and will continue to do so, but the soil is terrible, and it obviously doesn't get any rainfall, so I chuck the water from washing spuds or boiling veg (cooled) on it once every week or so. Things like verbena, achillea, ox-eye daisy, sedums, eryngium, lavender do reasonably well with these conditions.
Takes me long enough to water veg and pots - would never stop if I had to water everything else too, even in a small garden!
Your situation too @AndyDean.
I think a lot more people are going to find they need to change their way of thinking re which plants they have. So many areas are really struggling with a lack of water, and others are getting flooded.
Not everyone can afford to radically change a garden, but for some, they may have to make major changes. Hard if you don't have the time and budget - or the inclination.
We seem to have had a lot more queries about dead grass and shrubs/trees this year than ever before.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Not that I ever do that....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
I do love a good garden edit...
Colour fade is a major issue for me in general so reds turn pink, oranges turn pink or yellow, purples turn pink. Tricky having a hot colour border!