Nan Knew Best, Turf Stuff, Dry Run & Boughing Out

Taken from Lynne’s weekly column ‘Green Scene’ for the Western Mail
13^th August 2022

Nan Knew Best

A fortnight ago I wrote about the ‘Buchan spells’ indicating two specific weather spells during August.  Records show that the 6^th to the 11^th is often cooler than average and the 12^th to the 15^th is unusually hot, often providing a ‘heat wave’.  It’s been close this year – but no goldfish! Still fascinates me though.  The heat wave prediction is only 48 hours out.  That’s not bad considering the Buchan spells originated back in the 19^th century.

Anyhow – it’s hot. Heat wave number 2 this year.  Last week Radio Wales asked me to go onto the DriveTime Show and give tips about looking after your garden during heat waves and the predicted hosepipe bans.  In a nutshell I said that we needed to take a leaf out of our grandparents book and respect water all year round not just when it was at a premium.

I have vivid memories of my nan washing the dishes and then carrying the washing up bowl full of water out to use to water the flowerbeds and/or veg.  The washing up liquid in the water also helped to keep the aphids off of the Lupins and broad beans. Ironically now, you can actually be fined for using a soapy mixture like this in the garden, as the labels on the washing up liquid don’t state that it can be used for this purpose.

We only flushed the loo when absolutely necessary and were often told, ‘If it’s yellow let it mellow, if it’s brown flush it down.’  Bath water was also used to flush the toilet as well as water the garden.  We respected water and were mindful of its consumption. It’s that simple.

Ideally we should all be making an effort to harvest as much rainwater as possible – line up those water butts and get ‘em full through the winter and spring.  The Whisky Barrel Brothers in Abergavenny are repurposing beautiful old whisky barrels into water butts (amongst other things), which make lovely features as well as being useful.

They can be contacted on 07731 922038 for more details.

Turf Stuff

In the meantime, start being a bit more water-savvy right away.  It’s all about prioritising in the garden.  The lawns shouldn’t be watered at all.

Grass will always recover and if you water artificially the chances are the roots will come up to the surface to utilise that water making them much more vulnerable in a hosepipe ban. It is far better to let the roots work their way deeper into the soil in search for water and survival.

Most herbaceous plants and shrubs will also recover – they all want to survive.  Cutting back spent top-growth will help them conserve moisture and energy.

It is the containerised plants and veg that are the most vulnerable really.  Anything in a container will need watering – it is relying on you totally for its survival.  But water right at the soil surface and soak the soil a couple of times a week rather than just damp the surface every day.

If possible, move pots into the shade and group together to reduce evaporation – same with hanging baskets although I fear some of those will have been sacrificed to the Bedding Plant Gods already as people prioritise holidays over hanging baskets.  If you are still trying to keep yours alive, sit them in a bucket or Gorilla tub of water each night so the compost can absorb the water instead of it running off the surface.

In the veg patch potatoes can be lifted now, carrots and parsnips should be deep enough to be OK but beans, leafy crops, tomatoes and cucumbers will need watering as that is what they consist mostly of.

And of course, last but definitely not least, please make sure you have saucers of fresh water out for the wildlife. They should be the priority in every garden.

It seems that we are heading towards water being a luxury in the summer months and heating a luxury in the winter months. But at least we will still have mobile phones to use to complain about it all on social media. How on earth did it get to this?

Dry Run

Thirty five years ago I wrote an article for a magazine about ‘drought gardening’. I was living in the Caribbean at the time and I remember ‘meteorological minds’ predicting that the UK was heading towards Caribbean-style summers.

The article included recommending planting trees to provide shade but ones which would also tolerate drier conditions – they included, silver birch, Gleditsia triacanthos, Eucalyptus, Crataegus sp and rowans. Plants that are particularly tolerant of dry spells include Lavender, Cistus, Perovskia, Echinacea, Eryngiums, Sedums and Achilleas.  Most drought tolerant plants will have silver or greyish-green leaves as light leaf colour reflects the harsh rays of the sun.

Gravel gardens were predicted to become ‘vogue’ back in the 80’s – using drought tolerant plants and mulching heavily with gravel.  It didn’t come to much then but I wonder if it will going forward.  It is obviously time to reconsider ‘how’ we garden.  After years of encouraging people to grow veg and other plants in pots on patios, that may now become challenging if a lack of water – and such strong sunshine – becomes the norm.  Compost dries out so quickly it really is difficult to keep pots and containers ‘well watered’.

Boughing Out

And one last word of warning about drought. Oak trees have a rather effective but dramatic way of dealing with a lack of water – they literally drop a limb when stressed.  I have always thought it’s a good job we don’t do the same.  It is called Sudden Branch Drop (SBD) and also happens to a lesser degree in maples, ashes, beeches, and elms.

VALID ‘Tree Risk-Benefit Management and Assessment’ state that, “The overall risk from SBD is ‘mind-bogglingly low‘.  SBD is a loose term for branches that fail after hot dry weather that have no obvious risk features. There’s no agreement about what SBD is or what are the critical factors that trigger it – therefore we can’t tell which branches will or will not fail.”

And slightly more reassuringly they add, “The annual risk of death or serious injury is less than a one in one hundred million.  That’s so low, we’re at greater risk for the few minutes it takes to drive 2 miles than we are from SBD for a whole year.”

Whilst having seen a good many boughs that have ‘suddenly dropped’ on the ground, I am lucky that I have never witnessed it happen. Let’s hope it stays that way.