This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.
Weather deja-vu and watering
borgadr
Posts: 718
Down here in southeast Kent after a wet March and April (which was very welcome) it's more than 3 weeks since we had any rain, and no rain in the BBC 15-day forecast. While it's not been hot at all, the wind and strong sunshine are quickly drying everything out. The lawn hardly grew at all in the last week and I won't need to mow this weekend.
Monty Don often makes the point that he doesn't water his beds at all - which is something I aspire to here, though he gets a lot more rain in Herefordshire than we do (we're in something of a rain shadow between the Kent Downs and the High Weald). Obviously right-plant-right-place is important but last year reached a point where even drought-tolerant plants like eryngium, achillea and lavender were all visibly suffering.
So now, 3 weeks into what looks like it will be at least 5 weeks of no rain, I started watering my beds (not lawns of course) pre-emptively rather than waiting for plants to look stressed (which is what I did last year). My ideas is to water very deeply and infrequently to encourage plants to root deeply, and to repeat every 7-10 days for as long as no rain is in the forecast.
I'm interested to know how more experienced gardeners go about watering their beds (if at all) - particularly those of you who live in the driest parts, like Kent, Essex and East Anglia. Do you do it at all (and how?), do you wait for visible signs of plant stress, or do you do it instinctively after a certain number of weeks without rain?
Monty Don often makes the point that he doesn't water his beds at all - which is something I aspire to here, though he gets a lot more rain in Herefordshire than we do (we're in something of a rain shadow between the Kent Downs and the High Weald). Obviously right-plant-right-place is important but last year reached a point where even drought-tolerant plants like eryngium, achillea and lavender were all visibly suffering.
So now, 3 weeks into what looks like it will be at least 5 weeks of no rain, I started watering my beds (not lawns of course) pre-emptively rather than waiting for plants to look stressed (which is what I did last year). My ideas is to water very deeply and infrequently to encourage plants to root deeply, and to repeat every 7-10 days for as long as no rain is in the forecast.
I'm interested to know how more experienced gardeners go about watering their beds (if at all) - particularly those of you who live in the driest parts, like Kent, Essex and East Anglia. Do you do it at all (and how?), do you wait for visible signs of plant stress, or do you do it instinctively after a certain number of weeks without rain?
4
Posts
But I lost plants this winter that I wouldn't normally expect to lose - like all agastache, some penstemons and ferns, and a couple of clematis (we only had -8 here and only for 1 night, not minus double-figures two nights running like much of the UK) - and I do feel it's probably because they were already enfeebled by the summer drought.
We have the same on the Pennines, I never thought when I moved up here that drought would be an issue.
Had a few light showers at the start of May, nothing since. A persistent drying cold wind from the NE has also been very odd too.
I started watering weeks ago, all my Winter stored Spring water has gone and the Spring itself is a trickle. I've used 6000ltrs on plants this month and am now pulling from the borehole (which costs in electric).
Some of it is due to new beds, the soil is freshly sieved and I was hoping for rain to sort them out so didn't compact the soil. It's so light and fluffy the water runs straight through. Next year they should be better after the Winter weather and a top layer of compost thrown on, but right now they dry out in a day or two.
Everything else has to make do with tapwater. And for topping up my pond I bought a product that makes tapwater safe for aquariums, instead of depleting my water butts.