No water for 4 weeks in the south east - chances of my garden surviving?

[WellTidy]

We’ve been on holiday for four weeks, and there hasn’t been any rain at all, and nobody has watered the garden.

It is a mix of shrubs and perennials. Cottage garden style. I haven’t bought anything new this year, so some of them are years old and established, others have been in maybe a 1-4 years.

I’m not expecting anything in pots to have survived, but I’m hopeful that the shrubs will recover if I cut them back (?). I’m also imagining that my many salvias and lavender will survive ok. But what do you think the chances are that the perennials will come back next year? I have/had some lovely phlox, astrantia, aquilegia, geraniums, centranthus, agapanthus etc. I have no confidence at all in my young roses and hydrangeas.

Obviously it is what it is and there is nothing I will be able to do at this stage, but I am trying to mentally prepare myself!

I think some will be okay...I've got some agapanthus that I've pretty much ignored and it's fine. My hydrangea looks like it's been to hell and back though. I'm in Kent. I love my garden but it is hard work at the moment. Your pots will definitely be dead! I think it really depends on the type of perennial and how well established they are. Prepare for the worst and you might be surprised!

You can sometimes dig out dyingish plants, cut down the dead roots and revive them.
There will be tutorials of how to do it.
It doesn't always work but it might be worth a try, for the potted ones.

Side note but I use my washing up water to water plants
Also have a bucket in the shower to catch water while showering. Works ok

I think you have to brace yourself to have lost a lot. But gardening is mostly about hope, so you should start watering anything that might have survived (use grey water saved from washing up and showers, and water in the late evening to be as frugal with the water as possible). Mulch everything really well to seal the moisture in, and hope to see some new growth next year. Plants can be amazingly resilient but nothing will survive repeated stresses so try to give them a nicer time from now on.

Fingers crossed you'll have lost less than you fear. Next spring take cuttings from anything that comes up.

It is pretty bad! All perennials save for the salvia, one echinacea and a few agapanthus are very much dead, and I fear they may not come back.

The evergreen shrubs look very sad indeed but I watered them in the dark last night and I wonder whether that will help.

Everything in pots is very much dead save for one osteospernum!

Unfortunately I don’t have anywhere to keep cuttings. I am planning a potting shed after we landscape the garden in a couple of years time, and I’m very much leaning towards having drought resistant plants and grasses and the like, with a view to how a garden in Kent can survive with less water.

Bottled water.

Perennials that die back anyway have probably just gone prematurely dormant.

When I was on holiday one of my hydrangeas went completely brown and crispy but with watering it has revived amazingly well. It's five years old but was in a pot for the first year or two, so there's definitely still hope for your similar age plants.

I also have a globe artichoke that is constantly in drought because it is planted on top of the root run from next door's enormous conifer which pinches all the moisture. The artichoke dies back in high summer every year, then regrows in autumn. It clearly didn't read the textbook.

Fingers crossed for you. Improve your soil now to make next year better.

So sorry to hear this.

Mine is in exactly the same position except that I've managed to keep pots and a newly planted tree going. All my herbaceous perennials (astrantia, Japanese anemones, hellebores, crocosmia, geraniums, tiarella) are dead and crispy. It is a north facing garden and normally quite damp so it's been a real shock.

I'm trying not to get too down about it and am using it as a chance to rethink the structure but it is a depressing sight to see every morning.

Next time I'm going to be more prepared - am thinking about siphoning shower water into the empty waterbuts below the bathroom window.

I am away at the moment but am hoping my husband waters this weekend (I live in London and it's 30 plus st the moment). :(

Hydrangeas are remarkably resilient and can look beyond hope and then perk up once watered. Even if it’s beyond looking ice again this year it may bounce back next summer.

I lost loads and I wasn’t even away. Some just fried in the first heatwave.

When you redo your garden for next year, one thing I'm learning is that plastic pots and hot days don't mix well. The pots heat up and cook the roots.

Terracotta isn't so bad, but for all pots, it helps to sink the bottoms of the pots in the ground by a couple of inches, which helps keep them a bit cooler.

Not easy if your pots are on concrete but mine are on gravel, and it has definitely helped. Plus watering of course.

Thank you for the sympathy and advice. Fingers crossed that the perennials are just prematurely dormant, I hadn’t considered that. Storms are forecast for Tuesday so hopefully that will help. There’s only so much grey water I can collect and it’s not really making much impact. We don’t have a hosepipe ban locally but I’m conscious that water is in short supply around the country and don’t want to be irresponsible.

I actually dig some of my expensive full sun plants and moved them into pots and put them in the shade in an attempt to save them.

didn’t know if this would kill them either but they were going to die anyway. It worked… for now.
I also covered lots of them with shade from my garden chairs and I think this managed to save my newly planted hydrangeas. But I lost all of my hanging baskets and my bedding plants have gone as I didn’t feel like I could water them.

You may be surprised. I never water anything in the ground and v rarely lose anything.

I'm with you OP.

We are doing our south facing garden at the moment and are now getting full sun and fairly drought resistant plants.

I was originally planning a cottage style garden but have now gone for a sort of tropical theme. Lots of palms, cordyline, grasses, bamboo and more tropical type flowering plants.

Plus a large hammock and lots of shade sails!

I don’t understand why the plants in my overgrown garden have died off due to the heat but the weeds and grasses, with the exception of the buttercups, are fine .

Still no rain (Hampshire), but a mildly pink eastern sky this morning, which is hopeful.

I'm watering all my pots with grey water, plus veggies and had to water some shrubs yesterday because their leaves had all gone limp (Choisya and fuchsia). Both of them are long-established so I didn't want to lose them.

I'm lucky there is a spring under my garden, that is still running, so the trees are fine.

I wish it would get on and rain.

Depends on the soil and also if they are in full sun.
You could always drape fleece over things. I do that in the greenhouse as it has no shade.

I grow cuttings over winter by putting them at the north wall of the garage on earth- so not paving. Put sticks in the pot and poly bag over them, loosely sealed round pot.. Leave til spring. The rain also reaches them. I'm in Scotland.

I'm no expert by a long long way but I read yesterday to not cut things back yet as this stimulus will encourage some plants to try and grow.
They're not strong enough to do this yet without any water.

I left my garden for 2 weeks. I had watered the new stuff and mulched but left the established stuff to get on with it! I did mostly plant it 4 years ago to be drought tolerant except I put in rudbeckia which has shallow roots and isn't good in the dry and astrantia which I love but isn't at all drought tolerant!
Things that have been fine are grasses, verbena bonsaris (loves my sunny garden), eringiums and budliea.
But since I got back and the second heat wave other things are struggling even though I have spot watered with a can 3 tines a week. Crocosmia is sad, new hardy geraniums and the pesky rudbeckia!
Even my himalayan birches are looking sad and they are v drought tolerant trees. I am watering these even though they have been in 5 years.

I bought a length of clear silicone piping and I syphon off my bath water into a garden wheely bin so I can water my plants.

You aren't wasting water this way. Our trees have started dying even the 70 foot ones are looking stressed so it's all helping.