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?

We're about to redesign to replace our lawn, which we find a bit boring and are terrible at maintaining, with large densely planted beds, but we have previously encouraged clover as it is much better at managing drought, bees and other pollinators love it, and it means the lawn isn't just a uniform yellow.

I didn’t know this so thank you, I’ll stop water at nighT

I’ve had the same problem with my grass but this helped: rake away any loose, dead grass, then using a garden fork make holes in the worst areas (about 10cm deep) and then water briefly in the evening over the next few days and that should help it recover. Conscious about need to save water but you don’t need very much water for the above to work.

What pump do you use, please? I’ve been googling but getting confused!

Same.

@menopausalmare Please can you explain (as if to a 5 year old) how this can be connected to a shower? I don’t have a bath anymore, just a shower.

Don't water the lawn, it's a waste of water. Also plants in beds are never great tonwater either as plants will naturally grow deeper roots to seek out moisture. If you water them they won't grow the deeper roots and actually makes them less drought hardly. This is your bush's and shrubs, I only water any fruits or veg that I'm growing.

Don’t cut the lawn. Let it grow, it will bounce back beautifully.

Your hydrangea will recover. Give it 24 hours. It takes time for it to draw the water back up to the leaves. They're awfully dramatic plants!

My lawn also is brown and looks dead. Whilst I'm hopeful it will bounce back in autumn, I'm noticing some bare patches so will likely have to do some reseeding (and hoping the bloody pigeons don't eat all the seed!)

I've always hated all the fake lawns I see, but I reckon they'll get more popular if we keep having these hot periods. I want to redesign my garden next year so will be looking at reducing lawn space and planting more drought resistant things. Either that or just give in to the weeds which seem to thrive on abuse.

Mine is lushly green, mainly because it's more weeds than lawn. Oops. Bees love it though.

This is why we're getting rid of the lawn - we're going to have a few different zones to encourage different pollinators and wildlife instead.

People saying use bath/shower water to water the plants, can this be done even if there’s soap or shampoo in the water?

I’m throwing water from washing up bowls on the hydrangeas and they are surviving if not thriving . Geraniums love this weather

Yes.

That’s interesting, drama queens! I’ll be side-eyeing mine now. 😁

I never dig my beds. I spent years doing that. I do no dig. Let the worms do their job. Right now my soil is rock hard. I couldnt even dig it with a pickaxe it's so dry. The roses are doing great. They are unbothered. In autumn put loads of manure and mulch on the beds leaf mould is great too.
The worms wi pu it all down for you over winter.
The only thing I dig or pull up are weeds.

Our lawn looks shite right now, but we don’t worry about it. We do water the beds though.

What mulch do you use?

We didn't water during one hot summer. Not all the lawn came back and we had to returf and resend it in significant parts.

The garden looks lovely, we water, every day in hot spells. The lawn is good, albeit not perfect. Obviously we wouldn't if there were a hosepipe ban but some stuff would need the bathwater, washing up water to survive.

Quite a thick layer about 2 inches. I make my own leaf mould from my big tree and farmers sell manure cheap round here. The roses get a mound of rose food pellets.
The soil improves hugely over a few years.
I found no dig method when my back went and it's much better.soil organisms don't appreciate being messed around when it's this dry. The hard crust protects them. I do water though.

Thank you! I’ve made a note.

We’ve had a constant breeze/wind the last few weeks whic has cooled things down but it’s killing my new clematis. It just looks withered. It’s planted deep in a pot and watered regularly so it’s not the drought that’s causing it. Going to prune it right back as it’s already flowered in the hope that it will grow back stronger

Hi. At the side of our house is a pipe from the shower to the main soil pipe which takes all water waste to the drain/sewer. We cut into the external shower pipe, added a divert valve, and added a new piece of pipe to connect the shower to the water butt. When it's dry, we turn on the divert valve and all our shower water enters the butt and doesn't go down the drain. We empty the butt into a watering can and water the garden. The shower water gets quite smelly so it's needs emptying daily. When the weather gets wetter, we switch off the divert valve and the shower water goes down the drain.

Thank you! Unfortunately I no longer have that outside pipe. I did when I lived in a house but this is a bungalow and the shower drain is fixed in the floor. What a shame, I would have loved to recycle the water. I appreciate you explaining though.

Ah well we’ve had massive downpours with thunder this morning and hopefully my garden will appreciate it and the water butt will have refilled.