Watering Exhaustion - a change is needed!

I have got a bit of lawn where the north facing house wall falls.
It in the shade all year and nothing much else will grow. It’s gone brown but I don’t care.

I’ve got for forty gallon water butts connected to the house roof but they ran out in May.

It’s my veg and fruit -pretty much the rest of the garden- that’s making me so sad. But the farmers round here are in the same straits so I shouldn’t grumble.

How nice it is to talk gardening?

one of my aunts is very particular about her garden so she bought the cheapest bottled water and had it delivered with her supermarket shop, one of her much younger friends collects all the bottles once a month and takes them to a sainsburys bottle bank, she gets 5p back per bottle and it gives you a voucher for the amount to use in store, her friend gets her some extra shopping, my son also does this with drinks cans at a lidl store, he gets 10p per can and the bottles at sainsburys, it helps with the shopping for there family.

My new-to-me garden is mostly shrubs around the edges of a large gravel area in one half and a large plastic lawn (I know, don't shoot me) in the other.

I planted beetroot, Brussels and cabbage along with the sunflowers and a few other flowering plants this year. I water these from the water butts - down to the last dribble.

Pots are watered using 4 pint milk bottles filled up during the day with washing up/ shower water. I tried really hard to avoid using grey water in pots but am doing so now.

Ironically I've never owned a hosepipe before, but one came with the house!

Next year - looking to put a pergola over the pebbles to keep the sun off them. maybe with a vine over it.
Lavender in pots has not been happy - think the roots are too hot - so bigger pots grouped together so they shade each other. Looking at Mediterranean plants too.

On the upside, tomatoes are doing brilliantly!

Is anyone taking bets that next summer will be the wettest in decades? Although we know our climate is changing it is impossible to guess how or when, making forward planning hard.

You’re probably over watering your lavender lixy, it’s a Mediterranean plant so it’s heat and drought resistant, as are lots of herbs. I don’t water mine, and they look fine.
My roses are struggling, the ones in pots aren’t happy at all, so I’m clearing space to put them in the ground in the autumn now (well not actually now as it’s 32 degrees, but in the early morning as I can only garden until 10am, before the heat beats me).

Fabulous article about a man in Dorset who stores his water underground and has a gloriously lush garden!
Man stores water underground

Chestnut

Fabulous article about a man in Dorset who stores his water underground and has a gloriously lush garden!
Man stores water underground

That intrigues me Chestnut. - I read the article to see how he collects the water, it says he has underground butts, but zooming in on the picture I can’t see where he’s harvesting the water from to fill the butts. Maybe he’s re-routed his drains? Sounds like a good scheme though.

You’re probably over watering your lavender lixy, it’s a Mediterranean plant so it’s heat and drought resistant, as are lots of herbs. I don’t water mine, and they look fine.

Thank you, maybe so, but I don't think so. The pots are made of stone and get hot to the touch, hence my thesis that the roots just got too hot.

I'm planning on moving the lavenders into the garden border to see how they do there, but they'll need a lot of grit as we have clay soil here!

Don't you love gardening - always a logistical challenge! So, to go back to the OP, yes, lots of work with pencil and paper over the next few months.

Love the Dorset jungle!

Karmalady you have what I'm aiming for. Sounds great!
In our last house i had 4 water butts joined together, which filled from the greenhouse gutter. Not achieved that here yet.
I used the hose ( no ban) to refill my two stand alone butts as i can then dip watering cans in for my pots and tomatoes. Everything else has not been watered.
Some perennials have acted like it’s autumn but I’m trusting they will come back next year.
I have a quite exposed bed which i have mulched with manure soil improver and i intend to add more bark mulch around the shrubs and roses.
The poor old lawn is crisp and yellow, but experience tells me that it will come back. Grass is a primitive, indestructible plant .
My front lawn is horrible. Im thinking of digging it up and replacing it with ground cover plants. It’s on a dry sunny slope.
Any suggestions anyone?

lixy

^You’re probably over watering your lavender lixy, it’s a Mediterranean plant so it’s heat and drought resistant, as are lots of herbs. I don’t water mine, and they look fine.^

Thank you, maybe so, but I don't think so. The pots are made of stone and get hot to the touch, hence my thesis that the roots just got too hot.

I'm planning on moving the lavenders into the garden border to see how they do there, but they'll need a lot of grit as we have clay soil here!

Don't you love gardening - always a logistical challenge! So, to go back to the OP, yes, lots of work with pencil and paper over the next few months.

Love the Dorset jungle!

You’re so right, it’s a logistical challenge, I keep wandering outside thinking of plans to change everything round, replant, increase butts and where to put them for maximum ease of use, etc., it’s just too hot to actually do anything.
I just took a picture of one of my gourds, and on reflection I don’t think I can give them up even though they do take a can of water each every day - I think we all have favourites, and they are my babies, I love them!

Chestnut

Fabulous article about a man in Dorset who stores his water underground and has a gloriously lush garden!
Man stores water underground

Sounds similarly to what we have.

It’s a water harvesting tank 3,500 litres, it collects rain water and any excess water from watering. We had it sunk under the lawn approximately 13 years ago, we also have the option to use the water for toilet flushing (just have to switch over the pipe in the bathrooms)

I empathise with the gourd passion. I'm very proud of my one and only butternut squash! - first time I've tried to grow these.

I was wondering about growing them vertically next year so that they provide some shade - and also moving them nearer to the water butt/ outdoor tap.

We've got two large water butts, nearly empty now.

I didn't plant hanging baskets this year and am relieved I didn't now.
The lavender has flopped but may survive, other herbaceous plants and shrubs have had to take their chances.

The annuals we bought this year are mainly geraniums which don't mind being dryish but our beans seem rather stringy despite some watering although the courgettes are fine.

? for a good downpour soon.

I have french lavender in a veg trug, they were lovely when they flowered and I planted begonias down the middle, which are pathetic. The trug has no colour right now and I am so pleased with my existing echinacea in the ground.

Echinacea are companion plants to lavender

I have just spent a shed load of money and ordered 12" echinaceas for my trugs and pots. I am going to be very busy this week, I have one week to sort and replace some compost and need to buy some potting grit and more compost, I think JI 3 this time. These plants are going to arrive in one week

My herbs in a trug look awfully dry and woody and it is the end for them too. The two trugs will be filled with french lavender and dwarf echinacea. Compost will only have the top half changed to a mix of JI3 and grit.

The 72 basket strawberries are producing like crazy and most are big strawberries, enough to freeze some for winter. They drank a weeks worth of water in 3 days. I started with 9 plants, I divided and divided, it will be changeover in november. I ordered 50 plugs from ebay and they are getting bigger, in shade. 1/3 fewer plants in the troughs next year. Easier. Will be washed troughs and new compost

I have also re-thought my veggie plan for next year. Charlottes and shallots, ready in june and charlottes kept in the ground after haulms cut. Easy. Dwarf beans not worth the space,rather buy local from the allotments. One sprout and one purple sprouting very much holding their own. Carrots were good and I will cut and treat like the potatoes next year. The only greens I need are swiss chard gigantia. Beetroot maybe. I get riverford every week anyway

Hoping for rain this week, aren`t we all

grannygravy, the last house was an eco house and had a water harvesting system, underground tank with a pump. It just fed the toilets and washing machine. Needed to be thoroughly cleaned every few years which cost a lot and a hot dry summer caused the water to get smelly, so we flicked the switch to mains. Not something I would do as a retrofit

I did grow vertical small squash on my allotment and they were decent but heavy butternuts were better sprawling over the ground

I did it, completely changed the compost in 2 big vegtrugs, I got good quality john innes 2 and 3 and several bags of grit. Heavy lifting as each trug took 7 bags of compost. I have decided to just put the dwarf echinacea in and then top dress with more grit. No lavender in the trugs. The trug soil with hebs was a real hard empty, the roots were everywhere and well pressed down. I don`t think I used those herbs at all this year, waste of space. I am shattered now but satisfied and waiting for rain

Well done karmalady that’s sounds like really hard work, I hope you’ve got your feet up now.
We had heavy rain and thunder forecast for today, so far we haven’t even had enough to wet the patio. Keeping my fingers crossed for tomorrow.

We had to travel to London today and all along the M4 the trees looked quite autumnal.
They are suffering from stress from the drought.

A few grey clouds this afteroon and now, oh look, a lovely blue evening sky ☹️??

You’re right Callistemon21, there’s a beautiful Chinese dogwood near me, and I noticed today how sad it was looking. There might well be an early autumn this year.

Hats off to you karmalady, that was a huge effort on such a hot day. Hope you have something long and cool to sip this evening.

Our horse chestnuts are crisping up locally as they have some disease or other but other big trees seems OK. Smaller ones, such as the elders, aren't looking so great.

On the other hand my weigelia is in bloom!

Casdon

You’re right Callistemon21, there’s a beautiful Chinese dogwood near me, and I noticed today how sad it was looking. There might well be an early autumn this year.

We'll need a lot of rain to really get down to the roots and it could be too late already for some of the trees we saw

Heavy lifting and hard work was so satisfying after a week of doing booger all and just in time as there is a touch of rain, that gentle stuff that normally happens in april. I just felt like being ruthless yesterday, plants that don`t earn their keep cannot stay

The french lavenders were not as good as the dwarf little lady ones which remain lovely and compact and are easy to trim in the taller pots. A dressing of grit on the tops makes up for not having pots full of flowers, sets off the one plant in the centre. I have just talked myself into doing the same with 2 salt glazed chimney-like pots, tall and slim and I never know what to put in them. I have some little lady cuttings, hopefully rooting and that will give me enough time to collect adds and sods of bottles etc to half fill those pots with before adding compost

I put cosmos in the soil this year as the sedum etc were new but will not be putting any annuals out next year. I had to give the brand new echinacea a bit of water this summer but not the 2 year old ones and all have done remarkably well.

I shall probably move 2 new echinacea in autumn as I put them too close to a jelly king crab apple, which has hefty top growth in three years and I suspect equal hefty roots, must have, seeing it bending in the strong winds.

I used long angled stakes for all bar one tree, a pigs snout apple from sturrock in wales, which was only a whip, hence a vertical stake. All the stakes were 5 foot and I managed to get them down to only 18 inches above ground. Glad I had a lump hammer

My two new rowans are showing signs of stress, it was the wind the other hot day but they have had 2 full cans each and will survive

The upside for trees under stress is that their roots will go down further, looking for water. They need these long strong roots for the gales. This is why humus in soil is good, the worms do their bit and take it deep down and the humus hangs onto water. The summer I moved her, the soil was awful and water just pooled on the top, not any more

This next bit is relevant to this thread, something I put off doing, not wanting to add to tree stress. It is gently raining now and I slammed my rainhat on and went out with ratchett secateurs. Relevant to the trees and the rain shadow below and to my very stressed composting worms in 3 small hotbins, having had to survive on shredded paper for two weeks

From the master himself, summer pruning apples and why

www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlF_ekXp5PA

I have finished, two trees were 10 feet and now around 6, one tree howgate wonder from 12 feet to 8 feet. Branch by branch. Also the head height branches on the crabapple, it is developing a good canopy and I have a reading chair underneath. Soil area is small hence no grass

Reason for not doing it last week was the drought and heat, not a good time for the trees. Fewer buds and branches means fewer leaves next year = less transpiration= better apples and less stress on the trees. I have no doubt that heat will be a problem every summer, into autumn and this does seem to be a `thinking and planning ahead` thread

my goodness, hayloft were quick and all the dwarf echinaceas arrived today. I was so glad that the trugs were ready, I even went out early and got 2 more bags of JI 2. I mounded the soil slightly as it always drops down a bit, this was by 9.30. The plants turned up at 11, was expecting them on monday

I watered the plants and not a single drop went straight down to the ground below, perhaps I hit the magic formula for water retention. Only JI and grit. Last time it was potting compost and perlite and tbh not much substance in that and the water went straight through

So 15 plants are in and I cut one in half with a knife, very good roots so I took a chance. I have ordered 5 little lady lavender plants, again not the cheapest but I want them in now, not november. I did a tip run today and actually got rid of 2 kilmarnock willows and have stashed their large planters, plastic but nice. I shall be grouping the one kilmarnock in a salt glazed trumper pot with 2 salt glazed tower pots each containing one lavender. They were already half filled with a good system of old plastic flower pots. JI 2 and grit for them. The willows were very dry and I have been watering every day

I left room for one little lady in each trug

I cannot believe my luck wrt timing. It has all been expensive £94 for the compost and grit plus a bit more than that for the plants. Lol I counted my watering cans today, I have 7 and filled them all from the water butts but not a single drop of rain all day