Drought Doesn't Create Problems. It Reveals Them.
The fear and loathing triggered by the ongoing hosepipe ban really made me stop and think about drought, its impact on gardens and the relationship between the two.
Climate resilience has been a topic that’s been on the top of my mind over the last few months, especially after reading Waterwise Garden by Tom Massey and very recently designing my first show garden - one specifically designed as a vehicle to talk about extremes of weather in everyday domestic gardens - at the Royal Norfolk Show.
Whether the last few years ends up being an anomaly, or the new normal, is sort of irrelevant. Gardens should be designed to deal with the hand they’re dealt. They shouldn’t need emergency life support every July.
Yet, the way we’re looking at this probably needs to be flipped on its head.
When it’s baking hot for an entire fortnight, with zero rain, it makes perfect sense to point fingers at a lack of rainfall. Yet, multiple factors do come into play. Soil type. Shade availability. Planting density. Material choices. Whether you really can be arsed with a lawn. Mulch.
A drought doesn't create problems… it reveals them.
Imagine buying a car - but that car only works properly when it’s 19°C, with a decent sprinkling of drizzle and no wind. You’d be right in thinking that’s an insanely poorly designed car. A proper waste of oxygen.
Maybe the same thinking should be used across gardens.
If an outdoor space only looks, or performs, its best in near-optimal weather conditions, then it’s worth taking a step back and assessing how climate-resilient design can be utilised better across the space.
The conversation needs to be less drought-tolerant planting (ie a big, fat shopping list of Mediterranean-inspired plants) and more drought-tolerant design… a deep dive into layout, water capture and release, drainage.
Ultimately a hot, dry few weeks across summer isn’t the window in which a garden should be deemed good or bad.
Yet, that spell of weather does underline the consequences of dozens of decisions that have been made in that garden over the years. From big, meaty decisions about hard landscaping and how rainwater run-off is harvested, to seemingly inconsequential decisions about how the soil has been treated year-to-year (with the introduction of organic matter to sandy soil a massive boost to its water-retentive properties).
Of course, usually it’s lawns that take the first bullet once the hosepipes get outlawed - this is Britain after all. But obviously there’s a lot that can be done to combat this.
That could be a simple reframing of what a brown lawn is, or means. A brown lawn isn’t necessarily a dead lawn, by any stretch.
Lawns can be reduced in size and turned to meadows, shrubs, gravel gardens. Lawns can be replaced with more climate-resilient turf mixes, clover, or creeping thyme.
The shade created by the introduction of trees can go a long way to remedying a lawn that is susceptible to drought conditions.
Solutions everywhere.
And maybe that’s a hidden bonus ball behind a hosepipe ban - it’s the perfect opportunity to make a simple assessment of whether your garden is working with the climate, or in a constant battle against it.
Don't worry about it...
Bang down some creeping thyme...
Drought Doesn't Create Problems. It Reveals Them.
The fear and loathing triggered by the ongoing hosepipe ban really made me stop and think about drought, its impact on gardens and the relationship between the two.
Climate resilience has been a topic that’s been on the top of my mind over the last few months, especially after reading Waterwise Garden by Tom Massey and very recently designing my first show garden - one specifically designed as a vehicle to talk about extremes of weather in everyday domestic gardens - at the Royal Norfolk Show.
Whether the last few years ends up being an anomaly, or the new normal, is sort of irrelevant. Gardens should be designed to deal with the hand they’re dealt. They shouldn’t need emergency life support every July.
Yet, the way we’re looking at this probably needs to be flipped on its head.
When it’s baking hot for an entire fortnight, with zero rain, it makes perfect sense to point fingers at a lack of rainfall. Yet, multiple factors do come into play. Soil type. Shade availability. Planting density. Material choices. Whether you really can be arsed with a lawn. Mulch.
A drought doesn't create problems… it reveals them.
Imagine buying a car - but that car only works properly when it’s 19°C, with a decent sprinkling of drizzle and no wind. You’d be right in thinking that’s an insanely poorly designed car. A proper waste of oxygen.
Maybe the same thinking should be used across gardens.
If an outdoor space only looks, or performs, its best in near-optimal weather conditions, then it’s worth taking a step back and assessing how climate-resilient design can be utilised better across the space.
The conversation needs to be less drought-tolerant planting (ie a big, fat shopping list of Mediterranean-inspired plants) and more drought-tolerant design… a deep dive into layout, water capture and release, drainage.
Ultimately a hot, dry few weeks across summer isn’t the window in which a garden should be deemed good or bad.
Yet, that spell of weather does underline the consequences of dozens of decisions that have been made in that garden over the years. From big, meaty decisions about hard landscaping and how rainwater run-off is harvested, to seemingly inconsequential decisions about how the soil has been treated year-to-year (with the introduction of organic matter to sandy soil a massive boost to its water-retentive properties).
Of course, usually it’s lawns that take the first bullet once the hosepipes get outlawed - this is Britain after all. But obviously there’s a lot that can be done to combat this.
That could be a simple reframing of what a brown lawn is, or means. A brown lawn isn’t necessarily a dead lawn, by any stretch.
Lawns can be reduced in size and turned to meadows, shrubs, gravel gardens. Lawns can be replaced with more climate-resilient turf mixes, clover, or creeping thyme.
The shade created by the introduction of trees can go a long way to remedying a lawn that is susceptible to drought conditions.
Solutions everywhere.
And maybe that’s a hidden bonus ball behind a hosepipe ban - it’s the perfect opportunity to make a simple assessment of whether your garden is working with the climate, or in a constant battle against it.
Bang some creeping thyme down
