Heatwave killing garden

[gardeningnovice5]

Large patches of my lawn are yellow and half dead. The soil in the flower beds is as hard as a rock and cracked (it’s clay). Should I water the lawn and the actual soil around the plants (as well as the plants themselves)? Or is that just a waste of water? Also, should I use a fork to break up the hard clumps of soil and turn it over?

Don't bother watering the lawn, it will spring back into life in the autumn.

Can you mulch your flower-beds, if you can any water will be retained?

I think lawns are going to be a lost cause this summer. Don't panic, it will all regenerate in the autumn.

I would water the plants but in late evening so the water doesn't all evaporate.

Given how we are likely to have a lot of long hot summers, I am planting stuff that thrives on minimal water and full sun. Otherwise I'm just setting up the plants to fail.

I am watering my plants (in pots, no lawn, all patio / slate). What I would like someone to explain is why I have to water my pots to stop them dying, everyone's lawn is dying, there is no water anywhere, and the bloody weeds are growing a foot per day!!!

Thanks! So even if the grass is yellow, will it come back in the autumn? I thought yellow meant it was fully dead and a lost cause.

The grass will come back, seriously, don't worry about that part. Mine has gone crispy and brown many times and been lush by October.
Just water any veg, flowers and shrubs that need some TLC.

We are just spot watering. Yellow crispy lawns are very common in Surrey! They always come back in the Autumn. We rarely cut them at all in the summer, and if we do, its always on a long cut.

Dry in East Anglia too. Brown and crispy is normal. Grey and breaking off is probably dead.

Reseed bare patches in autumn with drought tolerant species. Mow on a high cut. Here, we just let it grow until August - it is fun to watch all the insects and how many different species of plants we have now. It is our brownest meadow to date this year though due to the dry spring weather.

The best thing we have done is to mulch shrubs and flower beds with a manure compost mix, then another layer of bark.

The lawn can go full dusty brown and still come back!

However it will appreciate being scarified and aerated over autumn/next spring to get rid of all the dead thatch.

Thanks! I always thought of summer as the time when all our hard gardening work came to fruition and lots of flowers would be in full bloom. But actually a lot of it is half dead. Perhaps spring is the glory time for the garden now, especially with our increasingly hot summers here in the SE.

Ha ha! I always think the term 'weedy' to mean something weak and feeble is very wide of the mark. They always seem to spring through anything, in the most unpromising situations, and thrive. My ndn's bindweed is looking lush atm unfortunately.

Forget your lawn OP. They always return to previous green unless very newly laid. The upside is it won't need much mowing!

Water in the mornings as this is when plants are actively taking in water and it avoid evaporation (mulch to preserve moisture)
I avoid watering at night as I recently learned it makes it easier for slugs and snails to be active.

I'd say my garden probably looked better in May/early June.

But getting rid of anything that doesn't survive a drought has definitely been the way forward for my garden. Sunflowers have gone crazy on precisely no care or attention or water so they are making the list for next year.

We have 5 water butts, one of which is connected to our shower via a divert valve. We get about 6 buckets of grey water a day and switch it off when the rain returns. Well worth the effort.

I plant things really closely together and make sure no soil is showing, that way they sort of shade each other and the ground cover stops the water evaporating. In the sunniest parts of my garden I only use plants now that will tolerate the very hot summers.

I genuinely wonder if the desire for south facing gardens will wane with more people seeking shade and a place to grow things. Shady borders are much more interesting and long lasting than sunny these days.

I deliberately let moss flourish in my back lawn as it stays green however hot it gets! My front lawn does get a bit yellow and crispy if we have a run of hot days with no rain.

Mind you, I’m still waiting for the heatwave! Here ( S Manchester area) we have had a few hot days but also had plenty of cool, wet days! May was very pleasant, lots of sun, no rain for over 30 days according to our local amateur weatherman but definitely not too hot. Today it’s cloudy and quite pleasant but as it’s not rained for a few days, I watered my pots last night. I did lost a few plants in the pots in May, I did not realise it was so dry, now I water every couple of days unless we have a downpour.

Forecast is mixed, some sunny days ahead but temps will be around 20° to 22°, so hope to be sitting outside to enjoy the garden.

I do feel sorry for those of you living and working in hotter parts of the UK, I don’t cope well in extreme heat although I can keep cool in the house with my new Shark fan - well worth the expense ( I paid a fraction of the price thanks to my sons discount)

Forgot to say, I put a thick layer of bark on my patio pots each year, let it mulch in over winter to enrich the soil then add more in the spring. It really does help with keeping moisture in.

Our gardens are still looking good as the beds are properly prepared (soil broken up and heavily mulched) and the lawn is not cut to within an inch of its life (seems to be a "thing" nowadays) but instead mowed not more than once a week (on the medium setting) so it provides it's own protection against drying out.
Water the pots, beds, shrubs & young trees regularly (v.late or v.early). Water butts are long empty so use tap water but also save household waste water as much as possible and use it on the lawn.

Argh a few years ago I had just turfed my garden and planted the beds with tropical plants - figuring north facing, cool and damp. Then we had that heat wave and hose pipe ban! I lost so much of it. Now thinking if redesigning the whole thing with drought resistant Mediterranean plants - even though I water the beds it’s not enough. The grass is a goner.

I’m tempted just to make my entire garden lavender - it’s one of the few things that needs zero maintenance and seems to love the sun!

Curry plant, cotton lavender, Convolvulus Cneorum, Verbascum, Stachys and Stipa grass all do brilliantly in hot dry places.

Thank you! Verbascum look lovely!

Does Stipa grass do much for wildlife?

Everyone is right, the lawn will come back. However providing it’s not huge, I water it. We’ve got a sprinkler and a couple of times a week, I put it on late in the evening for say half an hour at about 9.30pm. Keeps it green.

Verbascum is ace. I've ended up with some in my garden, presumably brought by the wind or bird poop. It's pretty bombproof and couldn't care less about lack of water. There's always bees on it too.

The shower diverter is such a good idea, we pump out the bath water, but not thought of showers . We've got 4 x 1000 litres butts and multiple normal sized ones (live in France) but it's so long since it's rained, even that supply is dwindling rapidly.

A friend on FB said he was watering his lawn, and had lots of others replying, saying they were doing the same. I was mystified tbh, the grass will be back later in the year, it's such a waste.

I've been watering our lawn ... it's not very big and I get great pleasure sitting out there looking at lush grass rather than crunchy brown.