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?

The lawn will be absolutely fine - a few days heavy rain later in the season s as B’s it will bounce right back.

Early morning or late evening spot watering for your most crucial favourites will help.

I was mystified tbh, the grass will be back later in the year, it's such a waste.

And bloody irresponsible when the reservoirs are so very low.

I have quite a small garden and currently a bare patch on the lawn that I have seeded so I am watering my pots, flower beds and lawn at the moment. The ga
grass is very yellow in patches though as I only water for a few minutes.

As others have said, don't worry at all about the lawn. With the beds, mulch will really help if you can (although it isn't cheap).

I've lost quite a few small plants that were fine when I planted them out but they just aren't strong enough to cope with the dry weather.

Which plants are dying? If you spot water you should be able to keep things alive, but definitely best to plant for your conditions. Also anything you planted this year will need regular watering as its roots won't be deep enough yet.

If lavender does well you're probably south-facing and on lighter soil. You will need to look at drought-resistant planting. As a rough guide, grasses and plants with silvery grey leaves will do well. Beth Chatto's gravel garden is a beautiful example of what can be done.

Mulching will help the cracked ground, but ideally do it after rain. I mulch in early spring, although I do sometimes plonk a bag of soil improver on bare patches in summer.

I imagine Stipa provides habitat and food for wildlife, it certainly won't do any harm to anything.

OP, where I live everyone's grass goes yellow/brown in the summer. Please be reassured it will spring back to life as soon as it rains.

I wish grass did die when it wasn't watered, my allotment would be a lot easier to manage, I would say grass is totally indestructible just ignore the yellow patches. Don't disturb the soil it will be better underneath and you'll upset the microbes. Stipa grasses produce beautiful seed heads that birds like, and habitat, and you'll get ladybirds and hoverflies for the aphids that inevitably turn up. I have a full sun dry gravel half of the garden and linaria-toadflax, which comes in a range of colours and heights grows itself there, it will grow out of bricks so never needs watering, and chamomile, yarrow, sage, lambs ears, betony, and thyme too to add to the herbs, they love it hot and dry, I've got self seeded chamomile growing out of the patio cracks. I've got a lot of roses too, they are thriving in the heat although I do water, feed and mulch them in the winter. Go for it, a lavender lawn is much nicer than a mown grass lawn and much easier too in a dry sunny spot.

I never water my lawn, it's currently green and brown with crispy bits here and there but the weather forecast indicates rain for Wednesday and Thursday so if it happens, the lawn will benefit from that. I tend to judge people who water a lawn, it's just not necessary and a total waste of water.

The pots I water twice a day and the actual garden has mainly plants that tolerate a lot of sun so they get watered every other day.

Yes another echoing a "Don't water your lawn"!!!

Water needs to be conserved at the moment after a dry spring and dry latter half of the winter. Lawns will bounce back no problem. Mine is a lovely patchy mess now at the moment too!

Our lawn is still as green as anything, but the flip side is that from late autumn through to early spring, whenever we get a lot of rain, there’s a lovely big puddle over half the lawn, and the birds wash in it. We have a very shallow water table under our gardens!

The reservoirs are in a shocking state and after 4 seasons of Clarkson's Farm and looking at what appears to be some pretty scorched crops nearby I'll admit to being very judgemental about lawn sprinklers off the mains in summer. It's lovely to have soft grass but they always recover eventually.

Fully south facing garden so it is roasting right now. We've lost quite a few mature plants over the past 5 years, it's just getting hotter and hotter. We've got a metric ton of lavender so it's bee heaven and a lot of Euphorbia which is lovely lime green in the spring. It seeds itself relentlessly though so you have to keep an eye on it. Gradually I am just putting in more and more drought proof plants and the only things we water are in pots.

My lawn currently looks like hay. It happens every year and is lush and green in Autumn again. I don't water the lawn, only the plants.

I don't water the lawn as I like not having to mow it as often. I water plants every 2 days but not bare earth. I only have a tiny garden

I water my pots and any plant in the garden that I planted before the heatwave if they seem to be struggling. The long established ones seem fine. I’m happy for the grass to dry as I don’t have to cut it! Mine always grows back

I water the plants, but the soil base, not the leaves as that can magnify the sun They say do it in the evening to stop that too. I dont water empty soil with nothing in it.

I sometimes think its the heat itself, not just dryness, so we move pots to the shade and have rigged up some greenhouse shading for some plants.

Im lucky in that my garden is a bog most if the year, so actually the lawn is still green.

I’m only watering pots and an Acer that is in the ground. Grass is so tough , it bounces back. Everything else is lavender, Mexican orange blossom, budleia and other hardy shrubs. It looks like late August out there. Got some fab hostas in pots and they’re ok but watering daily.

Clover is incredibly great in dry and heat instead of just lawn

Yes to watering the soil around plants as well as the plants themselves as it helps to increase overall humidity.

Ignore the lawn. You can, if you wish, utilise your bathwater once it has gone cold. If you are having a shower, then put the plug in the bath to trap the water and then use a jug to transfer to a watering can. Or, as my late dad used to do, fix up a hosepipe out of the window and siphon it down.

Ive noticed this evening that I seem to have a dying hydrangea on my hands. It's weird since it's been in a few years and has been fine until now. It hasn't been disturbed or anything. I can only think its the heat and the competition for water.

I've given it a good water but it isn't happy.

I’m gutted, promised a downpour again, got a tiny, brief shower that did nothing to help. We’ve got horrible, high winds and it’s hot. We’ve barely had any rain for months. I watch the weather map and I swear the rain is circling us, tantalisingly close then circles around and away.

I’m getting obsessed! And sad.

Yes, it is what I consider August weather, that dry heat where everything is starting to die off, but we haven’t had a bloody spring yet! I truly hate this year’s weather. Everything feels off.

My lawn is head height (I'm 5ft7) but all my plants are dead. Weeds are thriving in the gaps in the patio.

I have common horsehair growing like triffids. They’re utterly ugly. And yes, thriving.

Mine did that the year before last. Hopefully yours will have perked up by morning.