The garden during the heat wave

It’s been unusually hot and dry this summer. Most days this week have averaged 32 degrees/90 degrees. We haven’t had any rain since May. Parts of the country have had some rain but we have missed it here in the south. It’s been the hottest summer since the summer of 1976 and is in line to break a few records.

It has become impossible and impractical to water the garden. We have even given up on parts of the veg plot. We are trying to keep the potatoes, courgettes and tomatoes watered to give us some crops.

We got two portions of broad beans and they had tough skins so needed to be skinned. We got about two portions of dwarf beans and they needed stringing which they don’t usually. We did have an early abundance of runner beans and I picked and cooked about eight portions and put them in the freezer. After that the remaining beans were tough and twisted so we stopped watering them also.

Luckily we have no lawn. Our garden is too large to water apart from the pots on the patio. We have even given up on the two hanging baskets. At times like this it’s survival of the fittest. We are too busy to be a slave to our garden. Only the toughest plants survive.

We have lost some of the more delicate and most recently planted things. Some things don’t look great and we have cut them back in the knowledge that they will rise up again next year. Then there are some hardy plants that seem able to survive anything.

The view up the garden isn’t too bad

We have left the dead broad beans in the back (on the left) of the veg plot because it keeps the cats off. Since we stopped watering them they are brown stalks.

The path way looks good

It’s become too hot for me to sit in the garden so this is the spot I sit in at the end of the day when it has cooled down and this is my view from my garden chair.

The anemones look great

Anemones just need leaving to their own devises and once they have matured they can withstand the harshest winter and the hottest summer and always do just fine.

The hibiscus looks great

Hibiscus is another plant that once established can also withstand the coldest of winters and the coolest or hottest of summers equally.

The hollyhock has started to flower at last

We put this one in this year as we had lost the ones we planted in the past. The leaves developed orange dots as if it was diseased. I kept cutting the worse ones off and now it has surprised us by finally flowering. The flowers are beautiful and it has a lot more to open yet. How long we will keep it is another question.

There are pockets of the garden that are either brown/yellow (autumnal looking) or bleached. The hostas are completely bleached but there are parts of the garden that still look good. The way I look at it is that it will all come back next year.

You can never tell in this country what sort of summer we will get and next year could be completely different. The garden will always return and evolve year after year so there is no point worrying about it. Like a lawn it will always come back.