The rainfall problems are certainly becoming more prevalent in many areas @Randommoose1. Very difficult. There's a limit to how many waterbutts or tanks people can put in a garden too. Fine if you have acres of land, but most people don't. The shade dilemma is also tricky, because semi shade covers a wide range of situations. A plant can be in partial shade all the time - ie among deciduous planting, especially trees and shrubs, or it can be in shade for X amount of hours in a day, and sun for X amount of hours. Both would be considered semi shade. For the latter, I think around 3 or 4 hours of sun is determined as semi shade. Again though - in hotter areas, that 3 or 4 hours could be too much ,depending on the plant. The amount is calculated by summer daylight hours, as with full sun.
The joy of the challenges
Yes, water is probably only going to become more scarce. I have 3 waterbutts, normally only a couple of pots in shade, I don't water anything in the ground routinely and yet I still ran out and had to use the tap twice last year. I am planning to get an IBC as it will hold a lot more but not take up much more space than the waterbutts (plus I will put those in another place by the house so I still get all that water too). Plus I try to keep everything covered in woodchip and grow trees for shade.
For things that are really important to me ( for instance my Acer s. Aureum) I put them in a pot in the planned final position for a year to see how they do before planting. But I don't have the ability or rainwater capacity to keep lots of pots going so generally plants just have to go in the ground and see if they survive.
As you say "partial" can cover a lot of situations and that can make a big difference!
These shrubs were £6.80 each for 3L bushy plants about 30cm tall (well, Eve Price is smaller) so I am happy with that price even if they don't all survive or I need to remove something for getting too big. Sometimes I would rather just try something and see.
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For things that are really important to me ( for instance my Acer s. Aureum) I put them in a pot in the planned final position for a year to see how they do before planting. But I don't have the ability or rainwater capacity to keep lots of pots going so generally plants just have to go in the ground and see if they survive.
As you say "partial" can cover a lot of situations and that can make a big difference!
These shrubs were £6.80 each for 3L bushy plants about 30cm tall (well, Eve Price is smaller) so I am happy with that price even if they don't all survive or I need to remove something for getting too big. Sometimes I would rather just try something and see.