|
|
|
Hot dry summers are hard on the garden. Well-established plants can be lost despite your best efforts with the hose. It is often the same tale when gardener's meet, sad stories of plants, shrubs and trees lost in the heat and drought of summer.
Often it is what we plant and how we plant it that results in dreadful gaps in the border after a hot summer. We need to reassess and change how and what we garden!
When planning and planting your garden plan for drier periods, and reduce or eliminate watering requirements by using more drought tolerant plants and better garden techniques. Beth Chatto’s famous gravel garden survives without any additional water at all (she simply does not water it) in a low rainfall area that, some summers, seems never to get a decent shower at all.
Prepare the Soil
One of the keys to the wonderfully vibrant planting that Mrs Chatto achieves is in the preparation. Incorporate plenty of compost into your soil before planting. Organic matter will not only improve the level of nutrients in the soil it will improve the structure. Avoid fertilizers that will promote rank leafy growth- any soft growth will be cut back by the first dry spell and your plants will struggle to survive. If your soil is heavy clay then cultivate it deeply and add grit to the soil to help prevent it baking hard when dry.
Mulch
Use mulches that will improve water retention. Compost, bark, pea-straw and gravel are all widely available mulches. Apply the mulch in the autumn or winter before the summer heat dries out the soil and you will find it always stays moist beneath the mulch blanket. Layers of newspaper, watered until they are only as wet as a damp kitchen sponge and several pages thick, laid beneath your mulch will further increase the moisture retention and extend the life of the mulch. (More on Mulch)
Ban the Lawn
Consider paving areas where your lawn receives a baking and avoid constant watering in a futile attempt to keep it green. Lawns consume more water than most borders, so reconsider the need for a bowling green like lawn, and turn to other surfaces or, even, live with browner grass. If you must keep the lawn, set the cutters on your mower higher in dry spells, this will help prevent scorching and browning off in your lawn.
Plant Selection
When planning your borders try to use plants that are more drought resistant. Many of the plants popular today come from the Mediterranean - lavenders, Cistus, Phlomis, for example, as well as the oleanders (Nerium oleander) and other plants introduced into the region. Rhaphiolepis indica and R. umbellata will grow into wonderful, long-flowering mounds of pink or white.
The Californians, Romneya coulteri (tree poppy) and ceanothus are well equipped to handle dry conditions. Watch both in the wind, however, for breakages and wind-rock.
Aussie banksias are wonderfully drought-resistant as are the South African proteas, leucospermums and leucodendrons. Many of these are frost tender and for milder dry gardens rather than the harsher, dry cold of Central and the Central plateau.
NZ Natives
Many New Zealand natives cope well with drier conditions, preferring sharp drainage to wet feet. Try the beautiful daisy bushes- olearias, pachystegia and brachyglottis. Sophora microphylla the Kowhai, will withstand drier conditions when established; try one of the newer dwarf varieties such as S. 'Dragon's Gold' which grow to less than a metre.
The New Zealand icon, the cabbage tree (Cordyline australis) as well as pittosporums are all worth trying. The wonderful paddle leaves of the puka, Mertya sinclairii, are a glossy green that is a boon in the drier garden, but this is frost tender.
Native grasses, flaxes and, of course, the ubiquitous libertia, the NZ iris, all handle dry conditions with ease.
Next Page
Late-summer flowering Galdiolus callianthus |
|
Sun-loving Cistus 'Bennett's White'
Beth Chatto's stunning gravel garden
A colourful garden mulched with gravel
Phlomis russeliana - whorls of yellow flowers over grey-green leaves
Many NZ natives cope with dry, here Pachystegia insignis (Marlborough Rock Daisy)
Bright yellow flowers and grey, felted leaves - Bracyglottis 'Sunshine'
Some Plants for Dry Gardens
Perennials
Achillea
Ajuga
Arctotis*
Bergenia
Centurea montana - perennial cornflower
Dianthus - pinks
Dorotheanthus - ice plant
Echinacea - cone flower
Echinops
Echium*
Eryngium - sea holly
Gaillardia
Gaura
Helianthemum - rock rose
Libertia
Lupinus
Nepeta - catmint
Oenothera - Evening primrose
Osteospermum*
Papaver nudicale - Iceland poppy
Perovskia - Russian sage
Phormium - NZ flax
Potentilla
Salvia
Scabiosa - pincushion flower
Sedum spectabile
Sisyrinchium striatum
Stachys
Verbascum
Verbena
Yucca
Bulbs
Allium
Cyclamen
Iris
Gladiolus
Nerine
Spraxis*
Tulipa - Tulips
Watsonia
* Can be frost tender
** banned some areas | |
