What have you learnt from the heatwave/drought?

[Chippy Minton]

Have stuff in pots close to the house (shadier and closer to the tap)!
Watch the level in the watering system tanks, last year the whole summer took around a tank (45 litres), this year a tank lasts about 10 days.
Water long and deep less frequently (twice a week in the peak).
Sow fewer cucumbers!
Onions come out dry, no need to leave them on the surface waiting for a shower to wet them
Dry sandy soil allows a greyhound to really wear a groove on her favourite track

[Baldy]

No water on site - working away every other week - not good at weeding so tend to put quite a bit into big pots
Should have been a disaster this recent weather, but I've got a pretty good water collection set-up - it only completely ran out last weekend - and I don't really water non-pot stuff very much as rule. I've lost most pot stuff but have saved chillies and toms.

So basically, I've (re-) learned that whilst I'm often rubbish at growing, I'm also great at it and shall tweak and improve the water collection over the winter months, keep a look out for a pith helmet and carry on!
... and possibly cut back on the pot stuff... (stuff grown in pots not, um, anything else pot related)

Pip pip,
Balders

[Philthy]

Grass is actually incredibly resilient. The brown dust bowl that has been the back garden for weeks on end, following yesterday's downpours, has already resumed a smattering of green in a few patches barely 24hrs later! Wow.

Don't even bother trying to dig a clay soil when it's this hot; you'll break your wrists before you break the soil surface!

Putting trays of water down for wildlife (and remembering to keep them topped up )

Just echoing VC's sentiment really, that however much the current heatwave has taken it's toll on the gardens and parks, established naturally occurring flora have seen it all before and evolved to cope without our intervention. If anything I'll take note of what is looking vibrant and healthy vs dead and lifeless, concentrate more on the former and not worry too much about the latter.
The one exception being the GH, having always been an artificial environment from the outset. All pots have been in trays and saucers filled with water early morning, less chance to lose through run off and evaporation, and the plants survive the day. Tomatoes have been flourishing, probably best growth ever, but first few pickings bland to the point of tasteless . Fruit is well formed and firm though.

Oh yeah, and don't even bother trying to sleep indoors when it's this hot. I've had a few nights in the garden, with ear plugs to drown out the birds

[mothhawk]

I've only watered the three hanging baskets, and the apple tree in its tub. And the tub of mint; since this hot weather I've taken a real liking to mint tea.

One of the hanging baskets is on a shady wall where there are ferns underneath, so the drips from the basket have kept the ferns going. The apple tree is on a slab over the roots of one of the roses, so the run-off from that has watered the rose.

The only annuals I have this year are calendulas, they've had no water but have been full of flowers, and have grown very tall - I think three feet is tall for calendulas, isn't it?

[mothhawk]

The runner beans are interesting. They are Firestorm. Usually I have a mass of big leaves plus the beans. This year, the leaves are half the size, and more widely spaced out on the stems, but there are just as many flowers, and as many beans setting as last year. Does this mean they prefer to be on the dry side?

Previous years I've watered the beans, mostly 'cos I was told they produce better, longer beans that way. Maybe that's not true. Has anyone else noticed this?

I have a squash, variety unknown - (mix and chuck) which is trying to take over my small veg patch - it has insinuated itself among the bean canes, run up the fence with the honeysuckle, and wandered along to talk to the sweet peas, producing so far three fruits, which look as if they may be winter squash as the skin is hard.

[mothhawk]

And the two volunteer tomatoes are setting fruit nicely, although the plants are lolling about with the squash. No water

[Jimny14]

So things I've learnt this year. When it's been so sunny and dry here the bit of the plot that is shadier and normally stuff in it doesn't grow so well due to lack of light has been the more productive than the rest of the plot. To make sure when watering to wet the surface of the soil first a little and let it soak in before going back and giving a good lot of water (if I put it on the soil dry it would just run off). Pots take a lot of water. My lemon tree has been loving the weather. Erm oh I'm very happy to report its currently raining and should be all day! That's the first time I think I've been happy it's been raining.

[Kirk]

Might need to add to the single water butt I have which means constructing a bit of a better place/platform for them. Useful for the blueberry.

The other thing is that I really like temperatures of 25-30 degrees. Could wallow in them all the time.

[gringo]

All my plants are in pots & though my garden is quite small, it's been taking me approx an hour every evening to water. No greenhouse or polytunnel, everything's open to the elements.

Tomatillos: dry out really quickly in the heat and needing twice as much water as previous years. Already had a few decent crops, so they're about a month ahead of usual.

Tomatoes: Been an experimental year for me so the heat has been great for the larger varieties - Have picked and greedily consumed a couple of dozen Black Prince (thanks Chris11), and basketfuls of my normal Gardener's Delight (again, I'd say they're about a month ahead of normal). I've also had a couple of Negro di Crimea (Krim?) which are huge beef type tomatoes that I NEVER thought at germination, I'd get to ripen. The Sun Baby's and Alicantes (again thanks Chris11) are covered in fruit but none ripe so far. One of the Alicantes, about half the fruit developed BER which I've only ever seen in my first year growing.

Cucumbers: Can't keep up with them I've harvested so many. Lots of smashed cuc recipes experimented with.

Maize: WOW, loving the heat size-wise though no sign of fruit yet.

Chilis: Hungarian Hot Wax and Korean cayennes have massive fruit, and masses of fruit, though no sign of ripening yet. Chiltepins in full sun masses of fruit and ripening already, not doing so well in the shadier back garden. Pot Black (Chris11!) looking great but only just starting to fruit. Chocolate Habanero (Chris11 again!) started off really slowly, then put on a growth surge about a month in to heatwave. Now really bushy and huge leaves, but flowers only starting to form. Numex Sandia have been a mix, some fruit on a couple of plants, no sign on others. Fresnos started slow but now plenty of fruit starting to form.

Stawberries (alpine): never had so much fruit earlier in summer but now wilting.

Herbs: disastrous apart from a dill volunteer growing up amongst pots in shadiest area, the lovage is thriving, and the Korean Perilla after a slow start are now masses of leaves. My Korean chives got overwhelmed by European chives.

Onions and carrots: did not grow at all.

Having said all that, the winds yesterday and last night have wreaked havoc, looks like about 50% of tomatoes and tomatillos are down and lots of chilis looking horizontal. Hoping to rescue the majority but haven't dared go out for a closer look yet.

Wish me luck!

[Penellype]

After the wet spring, and on a plot that is notoriously wet, I planted most things in raised beds, and planted the raspberries on a ridge. Potatoes are in buckets to deter slugs. Almost all my veg at home are in pots. Watering has taken most of the evening, every evening for as long as I can remember until Friday. My left elbow is suffering from carrying/supporting cans of water.

Having been watered, most of the veg have grown well, although the calabrese in pots doesn't much like the heat. The ones in the soil at the allotment are doing better. One lot of carrots (Samurai, which I haven't grown before) all bolted. Lettuces bolt very quickly, and my "bolt resistant" florence fennel is doing the same. Outdoor tomatoes are making big, sturdy plants with lots of fruit, indoor tomatoes are cooking on the plant and have greenback. Indoor peppers are also cooking on the plant. Cucumbers have gone berserk both in the greenhouse and outdoors, as have melons and sweet potatoes under plastic cloches.

There is plenty of fruit on raspberries, currants, blueberries and apple tree, but the strawberries, which started off really well, had a lot of later flowers that didn't appear to get pollinated. Maybe they found it too hot.

Apart from the ones in pots and under the leylandii, I have not watered any ornamentals or the lawns (which are full of weeds like clover because I don't use weedkiller). The lawns have not been cut for about 3 weeks and were still mostly green before the rain, unlike every other lawn in the area. It astonishes me that people mow lawns short in a drought but they do.

The bedding plants (grown from seed this year) are looking dreadful - even the lobelia is dying. I may remove them soon and plant some winter pansies. Perennial flowers have flowered well but some (particularly the white shasta daisy) have gone over very quickly. One of the ferns isn't looking great.

Horsetail continues to grow strongly, but annual weeds have only really appeared where I have been watering. I expect a sudden flush of germinating seeds any day now.

[the big lebowski]

hi ,great idea for a thread ,i too learnt that watering hurts my arms lol,ive been thinking about this for next summer so i have ordered
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01E8YP4...d_i=B01E8YP4X6

i also have a waterbutt knocking about so im going to set it up on 1 bed run the hose around in a grid type pattern ,cut holes in the hose pipe and just open the waterbutt tap water 20-30 liters and see how that works ,we arnt allowed hoses to water our crops up there but we can use a hose pipe to fill up waterbutts ,so if it works instead of an hour of walking about with watering cans will take be 5 mins of leaning against my waterbutt and enjoying the weather

[Chestnut]

I have learned that I can water the plot faster by using a hose to put water in the waterbutt, which I then use as a dip tank to fill 2 watering cans. Unfortunately this won’t be allowed after next weekend, so I might have to find a large bucket which will fit directly under the tap instead

One can in each hand prevents me from tiring one arm out more than the other(!)

I have also learned to keep seedlings in the shade on hot days, so they don’t shrivel up and die...

Brassicas clearly don’t like it too hot. All 60day calabrese bolted, caulis sulked and wouldn’t flower until it cooled down and rained. Carrots refused to germinate. Many chard and few beetroot bolted too.
Courgettes and cucumbers have done brilliantly.

I wonder what next year will teach me?

[bramble]

I need to get more drip trays for underneath the plants in containers/buckets so water is not wasted.
Get a few more water butts. Couldn't believe how quickly I ran out of water.
Make a better effort to mulch more of the garden.

[Nicos]

Deffo need more mulch.

I decided to chuck some drive gravel on top of the soil in some tubs and they faired much better than those without!

More water storage for next year -I have a huuuge roof and most of it just runs away....just need a way to hide them in a pretty way.

Maybe we could put our heads together and create a mulching thread?

[rary]

I was fortunate that over the winter I changed one of my raised beds and used a couple of rubble bags and while filling them I had used a lot of seaweed when filling them and that helped hold moisture, also added a number of bags of seaweed to my main raised bed, as for the flower beds a lot of shredded material and seaweed used so very little watering required, in the greenhouse I have pots of tomatoes sitting above water troughs and only need to top up once she week, I feed by watering can every three days, the good thing about the hot weather was that my grass didn't need cut too often, and in an average year I don't need to water the garden