How is your garden coping in this heat?

[HammyHocky]

Just that really!

I have kept up an evening watering schedule and sometimes a bit of morning if the night has been warm and dry, but some things are still so sad and scorched! I am hoping once the weather calms down a bit some hard cut backs will help things to flourish again. I have lost a few things entirely which I’m gutted about, lupins for one, quite a few sweet williams, and a couple of herbs which I’m surprised about.

How is yours faring? What have you found is super resistant? Have you lost anything particularly special to you?

Both the front & back gardens are doing pretty well. I’m in the South West & it’s been hot for weeks, but it’s clay soil here so retains moisture well. Even the pots I’m only watering every other day.
But our garden is planted for nature & pollinators - so a few trees, lots of Mediterranean plants, & we don’t mow the lawn anyway & whilst it’s a bit straw like in places it’s still green in places.
The front garden (south facing) is full of drought resistant plants - rosemary, thyme, oregano, salvia, lavender etc.

My wisteria has shriveled up and lost most of its leaves, the grass is looking patchy but will return to its former glory when it rains, the herbs are doing well including the lavender which is stunning but the strawberries have been very small this year. The hydrangea has put on an amazing display after we thought we had lost it last year. We have some huge ferns which seem to have just collapsed and the hostas look about a month ahead from usual and some are starting to look a little bit sad.

We have had an abundance of courgettes! I have 2 plants and as soon as I pick 2, there are 2 more ready a day or so later.

Tomatoes doing ok. My rhubarb is struggling.

I'd nearly guarantee that if I plant mediterranean type stuff for next year, we'll have floods.

🤣

@Myfluffyblanket what on earth is sticky willy?! i’m too scared to Google it 😅

Nothings dead so far but everything just looks so dry 😩

The lawn is mire brown than green, a few plants look droopy and all my buxus are dead from caterpillar infestation.

Snort, well I'll have you know that my imagination is running riot anyway.

I think you’re right; I’ve always moaned about my north-facing town garden surrounded by houses and neighbours’ trees, plus a few trees and giant shrubs of my own. I think I should now stop willing the enormous flowering cherry and the apple tree to die so I can have a chance to grow lovely flowers! Next door’s yew and laurel death-zone makers can still eff off though.

I keep reading about the Hampton hack at the moment, basically a later version of the Chelsea chop to get the perennials to flower again later in the summer.

My fatsia japonica looks like someone set fire to it. Lots of crispy leaves on an acer and two dogwood, even though they're in quite a shady spot. My large sedums, agapanthus and gaura are thriving.

Agree about looking for desert plants for the future.

Beautifully!!

All my flowers are blooming, fruits and vegetables are growing great!

The grass is dry in a couple of patches but not terrible.

Probably the best summer ever for the garden, it has never thrived so much.

My poor hydrangea were parched for two nights despite DC having strict instructions to water ever evening. Not sure one of them will recover 🥵

That’ll be the box tree moth caterpillar. Abandon hope.

@Agoddessonamountaintop Hackney Hack?! Chelsea chop?!

At the start of the year my hydrangea flowered early then almost died due to too much rain. A hard cut back, a repotting and some feed and they are thriving. One flowered again! I think they’re quite hardy plants and fingers crossed yours will bounce back with some attention. X

Surprisingly well. I usually water nearly every day over a summer but have really cut down this year to save water and although they look a little forlorn everything is still alive. I planted a new border which is in full sun and have hardly watered it at all and it looks great! Think I just fell lucky in planting things that like the heat and are fairly drought tolerant.

Don’t you treat them at the first sign?

The lawn is just scorched. I have a miniature white buddleia which is drooping so it's on the watering schedule. I'm watering pots regularly which is a pain.

Aka cleavers or goose grass. One can make a healing tissane with it; it has anti-inflammatory properties.
Mind you, by the time i have disentangled myself, my clothes, gardening gloves and clothes (several times) again i feel like setting fire to it.

Not too badly most things are ok. In the back north facing garden my potted Acer is a bit crispy so I've moved it to somewhere with less light (it's been quite breezy which may not have helped). The hydrangeas look sulky but perk up with a good water. My clematis Montana looks like it's dying but my Astible, winter clematis, lavenders and a few others are all managing. The Jasmine looks a bit sorry for itself but I'm not sure if it looks like that at this time of year anyway? In the south facing front I've lost a creeping rosemary and saxifraga which I thought would be ok as they're supposed to be drought tolerant? I also have a salvia, coneflower, geranium, hucheura and dianthus out front doing well but then they're also meant to be drought tolerant. I recently planted some geums, a blue holly thing I can't fully remember the name of and something else and I thought they were going to die but they seem just about ok atm.

All of my fruit plants have died 😥apart from a dwarf greengage tree, which is in the front garden. The shrubs in the (shaded) bed in front of the house are fine, while the lawn has been scorched. The only thing that has survived in the back garden is a buddleia, which is usually smothered in a cloud of butterflies and bees!

The runner beans have had flowers but not set. Is that the heat?

The top left of the diagram shows its aptly named!

The sparrows are doing well; they're on their third batch of babies now.
They cleared my garden of aphids, so to thank them I made them a sand bath and a bathing place with two large planter-trays. I also made a shallow paddling pool out of a mortar tipout tray for my short legged hot dog.
Ddog is now lying in the sand tray, drinking from the adjacent bird bath while the sparrows are drinking and doing laps in ddog's pool.
Nature is stupid.