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?

I've been watering every day too, in the sun I've got mainly salvias, geraniums, sunflowers, heleniums, echinacea - all doing well

Hydrangeas, phlox and Japanese anemones now also giving up the ghost. Apples falling off my trees and Alan the cat has melted into a puddle of ginger. No rain forecast here until 29th. South Coast. By which time my garden will be a haven of brown and crispy things and walking across the lawn will exfoliate 2cm off of the soles of my feet. 😳

Recently my yard has been taken over by lambs quarters and the carrots refuse to grow. There was 2 of those lambs quarters but I did not know if they were a carrot or not so I let the 2 grow. Big mistake. Now there are thousands. Before I could remove the original 2 they had already colonized the yard. I am starting to think that type of plant just loves heat because it is the only thing that will grow other than the lettuce and a single blade of grass.

I’m astonished at how well the weeds are thriving. Bindweed is positively flourishing here despite our nightly battles.

This is my first year putting serious effort into the garden and I’m feeling more than a bit disheartened. We were away for two weeks at the start of the heatwave and it hasn’t recovered despite all my tlc. I’m knackered with the hosepipe ban and not convinced the water is even penetrating 1mm

My established plants aren't doing too badly, but the annuals and some of the veg are not growing at all well. Things seem to be hiding in the soil away from the relentless sun, either things aren't germinating or if they do they don't grow or grow sooo slowly.

Grass is straw coloured !

Dug up a large hydrangea previous owner had planted in south facing front garden which looked awful. Gap will be filled with something that doesn’t need lots of water and can tolerate the heat.

Fig tree loving every minute of this summer!

My olive tree is as happy as it’s ever been, full and bushy. And the jasmine did extremely well; this was the first year it bloomed so much that I could smell it when walking by. The Acer is crispy.

Mine are all dying , it’s so depressing. We haven’t had rain for 36 days on the south coast and none in the foreseeable forecast .

My garden is mostly "lawn" and it has looked horrific for weeks. It's now totally brown and dusty in parts. It will green up again but I'm getting fed up of my garden looking so awful from May-Sept every year.
If I had the money, I'd love to get it landscaped so we only have about a third of the lawn we currently do and make the rest beds, decking and patios with lots of pots
My pots are looking OK. The geraniums are little troupers! Olive tree in a pot is surviving well but like others, my acer is looking very sorry for itself. The hydrangeas and azaleas are hanging in there but needing lots of water.
I'm definitely planning more Mediterranean and drought tolerant planting next year. I'm in the South East and these hot, dry summers are becoming pretty standard now

It's fine. Have been sprinkling the main lawn and watering the hydrangeas, geraniums, penstemon, etc and anything that isn't 100% estavlished. The lavender, hibiscus, daphne and oleander especially are spectacular.

Hosepipe ban from midnight tonight. The main lawn will go brown like the front, side and rear. Looking into an irrigation system.

Wateting cans at the ready from tomorrow.

My apple tree has started dropping apples. I'm sure im other years this happens end of August. So im guessing weather has made fruit ripen faster and/or the tree is under water stress

I can’t believe it. My passiflora caerulea has started to grow fruit! Am
in the NW of England.

Well the garden is suffering but probably not as bad as I'd feared.

I've put a gazebo up over the patio so the pots are in shade all day which has helped (they don't seem to be suffering from the lack of light). Amazingly the hanging basket survived us being away for the week during the heatwave by being semi-submerged in a builders bucket of water.

I'm watering the pots with tap water (water butts empty of course) and the beds with as much washing up water and shower water as I can. It's kind of working now the heat isn't so extreme but I lost all the peas and a lot of things are smaller and sadder than they should be. Clover in the lawn makes a huge difference.

The indoor plants are surviving but the rescue poinsettias are absolutely loving life.

Parched.

We were away last week and unfortunately had no one available to water, so the grass is brown and I’ve lost most plants. The azalea is crispy

Lavatera, salvias, perovskia, indigofera pelargoniums, raspberries, olive trees happy as larry.

Vinca, tree peony, magnolia, rhodi, drooping. I'm particularly pissed off about the magnolia as we've spent the last few years getting it back to strength after the beast from the east/ subsequent drought of 2018 almost killed it.

Hypericum hidcote going brown. Japanese anemones looking baked, some camellia leaves going brown.

Roses and stuff in pots are getting watered, like annual petunias which seem quite happy, penstemon and cosmos So those are doing ok.

I'm in an area which hasn't seen rain for over a month and hit the highest temps. I feel so sad at the state of things.

No hose ban here and I've been watering most days but have still lost a lot of bedding plants and ones in pots - lobelia, petunias and even some geraniums. (Maybe OVER watering??) Usually the pots are overflowing with cascading flowers but this year they are sparse and sad.

To anyone worried about their lawn,do not worry! Grass is amazingly resilient, and will go into 'hibernation' or a dormant phase while there is a water shortage. Believe me,after a bit of sustained rain,it will bounce back with a vengeance!

We are apparently due rain tomorrow. I have been faithfully putting water out for wildlife

I've lost everything that I planted new this year, despite much of them being established months ago, and many of my older plants are really struggling.

The grass is basically dust. Not even straw like.

The part of the border that gets most shade is faring really well, but we now have a hosepipe ban, so I’m expecting it to look very sad very soon. I water the entire garden (save for the grass) twice a week with a sprinkler, so it’s used to getting some love. It really, really won’t like the lack of attention as I never mulch. Which I’m now very much regretting.

Things doing best - salvias, gauras, lavender, Mediterranean herbs, established shrubs like bay and pittosporum.

Things already unhappy - hydrangeas, dahlias, roses. Geraniums and hellebores looking crispy.

I have too big a garden to tend to with just a watering can. So it’s a battle I can only lose, it’s just a matter of time.

the kids and I are forming a human chain gang every night but I think we’re goi g to lose my neighbour’s plants - she’s gone to Oz for a month. I feel so guilty , but of course there wasn’t a hosepipe ban when we signed up and we’re doing our best

has anyone utilised shade cloth to advantage? I think the plants are just burning to death despite having water.

That hasn't been our experience, we've had to returf large parts over the years.

35 minutes left of sprinkling before the ban.

I moved a begonia in a pot into total shade because I thought exactly that. It was just getting cooked regardless of watering. It's perked up a bit now. But, yeah. Some things are being literally baked to death.

I don't have any grass where I live now, it's gravel and beds. My Mum's London lawn is parched but my experience in the past has always been grass comes back.