Drought Gardening Mistakes to avoid during a South London heatwave
From overwatering and mowing the garden lawn too short to pruning and feeding stressed plants, these are common gardening mistakes during a drought that can make matters worse than they are.
When a garden starts looking brown and stressed, your reaction is usually to try and do something about it.
- Water it.
- Feed it.
- Cut it back.
- Dig the borders.
- Mow the lawn.
But during a serious drought, sometimes doing more is not always the answer.
For gardeners in Sutton and across South London, the best strategy is often to do so as and when required and to leave established garden plants to cope naturally.
Part 2 – Here are the 10 drought gardening mistakes I would avoid.
- Trying to keep an established garden lawn green
Let’s start with the obvious one.
Stop trying to make an established lawn look like May.
Grass can become completely straw-coloured during prolonged dry weather and still recover when rain returns.
The RHS recommends allowing established lawns to go dormant rather than wasting water trying to keep them green.
- Raise the mower.
- Mow less often.
- And if the grass stops growing, stop mowing.
- Your garden lawn may look dreadful for a while.
- But that doesn’t mean you’ve lost your garden lawn forever.
- Watering a little every day
A daily sprinkle can give the impression that you are helping your garden.
In reality, shallow watering can encourage roots to remain close to the soil surface.
When watering is necessary and allowed, water deeply enough to moisten the root area.
The RHS recommends watering less frequently but more thoroughly.
The objective is not wet-looking soil.
It is keeping roots hydrated.
- Watering because the surface looks dry
Never judge a garden’s moisture level solely by looking at the surface.
Take a trowel and investigate.
You might discover moist soil underneath.
Or you might find that the soil is bone dry underneath the surface.
This is particularly important around walls, hedges and trees, where rainfall can be limited.
- Cutting the lawn too short
Scalping and over cutting your grass during a drought is asking it to cope with additional stress.
Raise the cutting height.
Longer grass provides more leaf area and helps the plant cope with drier conditions.
If grass growth has stopped altogether, put your mower away.
- Heavily pruning stressed garden shrubs
A plant under drought stress is already struggling.
Removing a large amount of foliage does not necessarily help.
Healthy leaves are where photosynthesis takes place, so they are part of the plant’s recovery.
Remove genuinely dead, diseased or damaged garden matter where necessary.
But delay major reshaping and hard pruning until garden conditions improve.
- Feeding plants that are struggling
A yellowing or wilted garden plant can look as though it needs fertiliser.
It may actually need less work.
Fertiliser can encourage new plant growth, and new plant growth needs water.
During severe drought, this can create a demand the plant cannot meet.
So wait until the garden plant has recovered and conditions are favourable.
- Digging hard borders
If your garden border has become as hard as concrete, do not start digging it with a fork.
Repeated digging disturbs the garden soil and exposes moisture.
Remove weeds by hand where possible and cover exposed soil with mulch.
Save the soil-improvement work for when conditions are better.
- Thinking that every brown plant is dead
This is perhaps the most expensive mistake to make.
Plants have evolved a variety of responses to drought.
They can shed leaves.
Stop flowering.
Curl foliage.
Reduce growth.
Die back above ground.
Some may appear to have completely given up.
Don’t remove them immediately.
Once meaningful rainfall returns, give them time.
Check stems for living tissue and assess the plant.
- Watering everything equally
If water is limited, equally is not necessarily the best way forward.
A recently planted tree may need your attention.
An established garden lawn probably doesn’t just yet.
Prioritise:
- Young trees
- Recently planted shrubs
- Young hedges
- Vegetables
- Containers
- Recently planted perennials
Established shrubs and mature trees generally have greater resilience to drought.
- Planting replacements too soon
A drought can create gaps in borders.
It is tempting to fill them immediately.
Do not rush the process.
New plants require water while establishing, even if they are eventually drought tolerant.
Autumn, when soil conditions improve, may provide a much better opportunity to replace garden plants that have died.
It also gives you time to rethink what you plant.
The mistake of treating every part of the garden the same
A plant growing beneath a mature tree may be competing for moisture.
A border beside a south-facing wall may be much hotter.
A paved courtyard can become an urban heat trap.
A shady north-facing border may behave completely differently.
Do not develop a blanket watering regime.
Walk the garden. Look. Dig.
Learn where the moisture is disappearing. What should you do instead?
The alternative to over-intervention is surprisingly simple.
- Protect young trees.
- Check soil moisture.
- Mulch.
- Remove weeds.
- Move vulnerable containers.
- Let established lawns go dormant.
- Avoid unnecessary pruning.
- Avoid unnecessary feeding.
- Capture rainwater.
And wait.
Gardening during a drought is about recognising what you should do and what not to do.
A drought will ultimately change what a successful garden looks like.
A successful garden does not have to be green from fence to fence in the middle of a prolonged dry spell or drought. It needs to survive.
The brown garden lawn may recover.
The apparently exhausted shrub may produce new growth.
A perennial may return from below ground.
And a young tree that receives the right attention now may go on to become one of the garden’s most valuable plants.
So resist the urge to do everything you think needs doing, save water for the plants that need it or simply step back and let Hollyoak Gardening Limited look after your garden.
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