Coping with Summer Drought

I’m pleased to share my latest guest blog over on Sitting Spiritually where i talk about how to cope with summer drought. You’ll find an excerpt below, so please head over to Sitting Spiritually to read my full guest post today.

It won’t have escaped your notice that spring has been very dry. Plants are suffering from a lack of water at the roots and if you are on a water meter you must carefully consider how you are going to make use of such a precious resource and plan your gardening so you scarcely need to use it at all.

Established large plants such as trees and shrubs are mostly ok. They have a greater spread of roots underground than there are branches, twigs and leaves about ground. There is a balance between the plant’s ability to draw water from the ground and the amount of growth attained above ground, and in a dry year, the growth rings of trees will be closer together than in wet years.

Dendrochronology is the science of mapping tree rings from this data and tells us how the moisture has affected tree growth, enabling trees to be dated accurately. Plants can absorb nutrients only in soluble form, and in dry conditions the growth will slow down tremendously.

A really good watering of your potato patch at flowering time will swell your spuds, whereas several light sprinkles will scarcely do more than wet the leaves. Knowing I should water thoroughly, I gave some trays of seedings in plugs three good waterings, then potted them on and was surprised to see that the water had only partially penetrated the compost. Dried out pots and seed trays are best placed in a shallow tray of water to take up the water from below over several hours.