Gransnet forums

Gardening

What has survived in your garden with minimal or no watering?

(6 Posts)
MaizieD Thu 30-Jul-26 10:57:52

I had a prowl round my garden this morning. I have done very little watering over the past few weeks, apart from concentrating on a very few newly planted items.

All the shrubs in soil are absolutely fine, buddleia, roses, box, lavender, rosemary, lonicera and cornus.

Herbaceous plants which are thriving are peony, sedum spectabile, verbena bonariensis, lychnis, geraniums, hollyhocks, stachys (lambs ears) thymes. crocosmia and the dreaded japanese anemones (wish I could kill them grin) there are a few more but I won't bore you with a massive list.

Dead and dying? Alstroemeria and aquilegia. I'm quite happy about these as the alstroemeria spreads too much and is hard to dig out and the aquilegia are rampant self seeders.

If we're going to have these (long predicted) hot and dry summers, along with hosepipe bans, more in the future it's good to know what is worth planting and what to avoid.

I do have plants in pots which I have watered because they've no chance of sending their roots to seek out deeper moist soil so I obviously haven't included them

MaizieD Thu 30-Jul-26 11:08:39

Oh, I forgot to add weeds! Why don't weeds need water? 😕

JenniRen Thu 30-Jul-26 11:15:35

Doing well are herbs, in the ground where they were planted and self-set in the lawn. The dry, baked grass is sprinkled with oregano, marjoram and some pretty weeds.
Penstemons, red hot pokers seem ok as do shrubs with deep roots although one or two have died.

The peonies look brown, the perennial geraniums brown and crispy, the heucheras are looking sad as are many herbaceous plants. The cotoneaster isn't looking good.

We've concentrated on watering pots, clematis and runner beans.
The Japanese anemones are in a large tub. They bounced back after looking dried up.

JenniRen Thu 30-Jul-26 11:17:40

The lavender is fine! Covered in bees.

J52 Thu 30-Jul-26 11:27:25

Achillea are doing well, I’m going to plant different varieties next year. Most daisy type flowers seem to be surviving.

henetha Thu 30-Jul-26 11:33:43

The weeds. And some geraniums.