Anyone else just given up due to the weather this year?

ObsessedPlantswoman

I love, love gardening and now summer is here I should be out there redesigning overgrown beds and generally tinkering, but this drought has worn me down. the ground is just too hard for any planting or diffing and  I am soooo bored of watering, having given up in all but my pots and tomatoes. I just can’t keep up. 

It is amazing how many shrubs and trees Do still battle on without a drop of water though isn’t it? it has been months now since My part of leafy Surrey has seen a raindrop!

how do you guys all cope?

I guess I will pay the price next year 😕

GardenerSuze

@ObsessedPlantswoman I have worked as a gardener for 24 years. You have ups and downs but you must stay positive . If you really look long and hard at your garden you will find something special even in a drought. It is the perfect opportunity to take stock.

Get out a note book and make some big decisions, plants that have needed endless attention and still look dreadful... it's time to go! We are privilaged in this country we can grow such a huge variety of plants, this is why people like me are plantaholics, or at least I have been in the past.
Now I know my garden well and it's limitations, I have moved on. I repeat plants around the garden that do really well, it brings it all together.

Make a list of some special things that would be better suited. Look forward to the next growing season as a new start because that is what nature will do for you.

Balgay.Hill

Gardening is meant to be fun. If some plants are too much like hard work, i bin them.
I only water a few plants, such as newly planted trees and shrubs, and Rhodos that need water late summer to form flower buds for next year. Everything else has to survive on its own.
I don't really have much of a slug problem, as i've learned not plant things they like. I can only admire Dahlias from pictures, as they got demolished every time i tried them.
Remember it is meant to be enjoyable, and be ruthless in your plant selection.

bcpathome

Gardening is my lifeline and also my pleasure ,I could never just give up .Even though I can no longer rush about doing stuff I just do what I can ,rotate the jobs( deadhead one day ,water the next and so on) I have any amount of pots as I can’t dig any more and they get their turn and turn about with watering .If things get left out so be it ,but don’t give up completely ,even if you just keep some of it going it’s worth it .

Posy

It's tough when things are like this. It's true that we all have good years and bad ones but this is exceptional and it can be hard to keep the spirits up. Many of my plants are at death's door and some have passed through but there's a limit to how much watering you can do in severe drought - and, yes, I have done a bit that I shouldn't have.
I get very cross with people who say - sanctimonlously- ' Right plant, right place.' My garden is waterlogged all winter and dry as dust in summer. Which plants do these experts recommend, I wonder. It's trial and error, you just have to keep hoping for next year!

Singing Gardener

I know exactly how you feel @ObsessedPlantswoman! My problems have been compounded by having my son and his family staying for the last 6 months so having to spend much of my time looking after my three year old grandson. I haven't given up completely but have abandoned large parts of my garden to the weeds and drought and am concentrating on the veg garden. I do plan to try to get it back under control in the autumn though!

B3

I've almost given up to the extent that I'm thinking of just waiting to see what's alive next year and taking it from there. Gardening at the moment is mostly clearing up dead leaves and pulling out dead plants. Large roses are getting a good soaking, but I'm not sure it's enough. I keep the patio plants watered so there's a bit of colour left in the garden. Still depressing, though.
Maybe if I stopped looking at the news, I might become a bit more positive. 

thevictorian

Normally the garden is starting to look it's best this time of year but it's looking terrible at present. Anything that hasn't been established for 5 or so years is hanging in there or already gone. It's very hard to be motivated but I know it will come back as soon as we get some rain and this drought fades from the memory a little.
The trouble about changing things for the future is that we don't know what it will be like. We had the wettest winter in a 100 years recently and last summer was quite wet but this year a heat wave and the driest summer since 76. The more drought tolerant plants I have are the ones that seemed to have suffered most whilst the established hydrangeas and more moisture lover plants have been ok.

We have really sandy soil so I think the next few years will be about adding some water retention to the soil.

AnniD

I know exactly how you feel. My garden has kept me sane (although others may disagree) over the last few years, and the sight of the big bed in particular,  which gets full sun all day on most of it, has reduced me to tears.

I know in the great scheme of things this is nothing, but it is disheartening to say the least.
I have decided to definitely reduce the size of that bed and concentrate on the ones that receive "slightly" less sun and are therefore easier to maintain, l can concentrate on soil preparation to give them every chance when this happens again.
Ironically since the heat l have noticed that the sun is getting round just a little less each day, and l can make a clear distinction between things that are recovering and plants that have had it. A lovely Nandina is now just a crispy thing with leaves dropping off all around. It's coming out this afternoon. 

I'm trying to look on it as a redesign opportunity and as @GardenerSuze says, concentrate on plants that can cope, and that generally speaking will pick up after a heatwave as long as they are watered with a can.

Sod's law tells me that next year my garden will probably be a soggy mess. 

didyw

It's disheartening isn't it?  I planted an inula a couple of years ago against an outhouse that had a leaky bit of guttering.  That kept is as moist as it likes to be (I know - I should replace the guttering!) but not this year.  And the Lobelia cardinalis that I have been so pleased to have kept through a couple of winters are detumescing like exhausted ballerinas.  The leaves on the Cercis that was newly planted this year started to shrivel and crisp but has perked up a bit since I simply trained the hose on it and left it there for a while.  But I too have dry sandy soil so I must remember to do that again soon.
It's interesting to see what is drooping and what is perfectly all right.  More of the latter and less of the former for future planting is in order methinks.  But of course have to allow for the fact that newly planted things will droop before they are established.

GardenerSuze

I also thought that the more drought tolerant plants had not done so well then I realised that it was me! I assumed they would cope so I hadn't watered them .Having said that my Stipa gigantea and Santolina are the best ever.

Another thread is discussing sprinkler problems, it could run for 24hours and not reach the roots of plants at the moment. A total waste of drinking water.
As a gardener I care for the environment, the two things go hand in hand. 

Yesterday, heard a mum say' sorry no money for ice creams I do have a biscuit for you' no quarrels just a look of understanding from the children.  She will have higher water bills I guess if the drought continues and people waste water .My garden can wait, it is cooler and the plants are not so stressed so that's a positive.