COPING WITH THE DROUGHT

Hello - since my last blog - we have had a prolonged period of very hot and dry weather - often accompanied by strong winds - the absolute nurseryman's nightmare!

You may remember that in my previous posting - I suggested that this might actually be turning into an 'old-fashioned' English summer - well it does not look like it does it!!! With hosepipe bans being enacted up North - and the prospect of a weekend in the '30's - it is a typical Suffolk July!!

So - rather than bleat about it - you have to get smart - and go with the flow. We are well used to this weather in this part of Suffolk at least - and listening to customers this week at the nursery - it seems that many of them are either very worried or becoming increasingly desperate about the state of their gardens - I can but offer a few bits of advice - purely through experience.

Firstly - the usual quoted advice - forget the lawn!! Unless - of course you adore your stripes!! There are now 'drought-resistant' kinds of turf available - but generally watering the lawn is jst a waste of water - as soon as there is the slightest shower, it will green up again. It is not 'dead' when it is brown - it is simply 'resting'- and will come back.

Big old mature trees - unless they are showing signs of stress - don't bother watering those - it will more likely encourage surface rooting - their roots are down very deep - and they will find their own moisture. The same applies to mature shrubs - really anything that has been in for about 2 or 3 years should be able to fend for itself. The items to concentrate on are those items that have been newly-planted this year. These are only rooted down into the top foot or so of soil - and there really is no moisture there - so they will need water - how much - well that depends on your soil and situation - but clay soil will always hold onto moisture a lot longer than sand.

There is often conflicting advice about whether to water little and often - or only when things are really wilted - with a heavy water. Here, at the nursery - we do not do wilted plants!! Once a plant reaches the stage of wilting - it is in serious stress - and is likely to suffer long-term problems if not treated quickly - so our view - is that plants should NEVER reach the wilted stage - yes - I hear you saying - it's easy for you to say that - you have an automatic watering system - that is true - but in my own garden at home - which is very heavily-planted - I manage to keep stuff watered- all of the beds and borders have leaky pipe irrigation - which is easily worked on an alternate basis - giving something water every night - leaving the containers and baskets to be watered every day.

It is always better to water in the evening - watering in the morning in these sort of temperatures will lead to them quickly drying out - evening watering means that they have 10 hours of cool to absorb it before the heat returns next day.

Mulching - why do more people not mulch their plants?? Bare-soil will lead to mega evaporation - it gets hot and cracks - nature does not allow this to happen - bare-soil is always covered up with foliage - in our own gardens we can do the same - but in a more ornamental way - with bark - it keeps the sun off the roots - keeping them cool and holding moisture - that is how I have my leaky pipe - it keeps beautifully moist under there.

I have a big dustbin on my patio - and all of the washing-up water goes in there - and I can then use that water on my plants - why on earth pay for that water to go down the drain??!!

Fruit trees need a lot of water - but again if it is at a premium - only water those that have decent crops on - with a young tree - it will be hugely beneficial to the tree to leave only half a dozen fruits on it - that fruit is full of water - and that can be used elsewhere.

There has also been some advice about pruning back the 'softer' growth on shrubs and trees - the suggestion being that this takes most of the water - and the older growth is better able to withstand drought. This is new advice to me - but I see the logic in it - although it would need to be done with care - since the shape and potential flowering next year of some items could be compromised by incorrect pruning.

I think basically it is perfectly normal for plants to be short of water in high summer - it is how we deal with it that is important - we can still have beautiful gardens at this time of year - even if the GRASS is brown!!!

UNTIL NEXT TIME - STAY COOL!
RICHARD