Gardening in a heatwave

Technically not in a heatwave right now are we? Just day thirty-five of a rain hiatus (but who’s counting?) here in Kent. Half of the UK is officially in drought, and hosepipe bans are aplenty1. On opening Instagram you’re affronted with the latest wildfires, naturally I skim the comments only to find somehow people still manage to deny climate change. It’s a sorry state, all of it, the destruction and the ignorance.

I was flicking back through my own photos from this time last year, we must of had some pretty regular rain, everything seemed so green. So many tomatoes, the Dahlias were enormous and grass, rather than hay. The weather app has become my new obsession, despite it permanently telling me it’s going to rain in 10 days time. Is it just saying that to appease me?

This year has been quite the year to switch careers from working on a laptop all day to working in a garden, trial by fire perhaps? Nonetheless, starting early, before the thick heat of the day and finding shady spots to take a moment, it really does beat sitting inside still. Also, I’ve definitely felt like I’ve picked up some tips and experiences on how to navigate gardening in a heatwave.

Watering, especially containers has become quite the task, at work and at home. It’s not a case of encouraging deep roots, like you do in the ground - no, no. It’s a case of not letting the container fully dry out because compost loves to become hydrophobic once it does.

I’ve found a few things to be helpful when it comes to containers:

• Watering until it comes out the bottom, moving onto another pot and then coming back to water the pot again. The second lot of water infiltrates the compost a bit better

• Using oolas and wine bottles (it’s a side bonus that you have to drink the wine to get said wine bottles)

• Attempting to shade the soil, whether you can with the plant itself or growing a cover crop (I’ve used Nasturtiums & Violas mostly this year)

• Popping a tray underneath to capture the run off water

• If feeding, always a thorough water first so the feed doesn’t just slip through the hydrophobic compost (literally pouring money away)

When I popped into Nepeta England the other day, they handily gave me a tip about submerging Pelargoniums in the diluted liquid feed. I’m going to give this a go when it’s next time. I will report back!

Typically a spring and autumn job but I'm adding it to a degree on bare patches where I can - I’m going all in with bark to help keep the moisture in (mostly because that’s what I found in my shed). It’s a bit like spot watering I guess, spaces where it’s draining too fast are getting special treatment, a deep water and bam, here’s some bark.

I’d planned in autumn to do a mixture of well-rotted manure and bark to improve the organic activity but also break up some of my terrible panning soil. Until then I’m using what I have, a bit of compost here, a bit of bark and the remnants of old compost in pots when a plant inevitably can’t keep up with the heat.

I’m one of those people who believes I will absolutely remember everything, dear reader, I do not. Pushing myself into writing in a garden journal has been massively important for improvements in my garden. I’ve been noting everything from the temperature (I’d note rainfall, but who even is rainfall at this point?) plants still romping away, what’s needed deadheading when, crispy leaves, you name it, it’s noted.

Maybe it’s a bit extreme, but I hate going into the next year with certain expectations and then stuck in summer being able to change certain things. I’ve got a few plants on the brink of collapse, the worst thing is, I’m sure they were like this last year and I just didn’t remember to switch them out.

It’s not a new phenomenon at all, but this time of year you really do see the benefits of ground cover in action. Dahlia’s in my border are thriving thanks to the Ajuga reptans nestling the ground around them, my vegetables keep their roots cool thanks to nasturtiums, Chamomile is spreading over my trough, helping the Cosmos to keep blooming.

In some places it could feel a bit late to add ground cover now, but I do think with anything regularly watered like vegetable patches, or containers, there’s still time. Herbs spring to mind, a mass of Parsley or Coriander would not go a miss if you have bare soil around.

Despite the lack of rain, at home my partner and I have been sorting out our water storage situation. We’ve always had water butts, but limited storage - about 350L combined between two. A decision was made to sacrifice a small chunk of the bit we call the utility area (where the veg is grown) to house a 1000L IBC (it’s a huge cube) - we might not be getting any meaningful rain soon but we had a very wet winter, so if things continue in this pattern - at least it’ll keep us going a bit longer!

On top of that, my partner pointed out that the normal water butt pipe fixings that go onto your gutter do not capture all of the water, especially if it’s a heavy downpour (which blew my mind). After some researching (on his part, not mine) he found this rain-harvester which captures around 85% of the water from the drainpipe. Not super exciting, but at the same time, kind of excited by it?

Thank you for reading, allie x

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