The last two heatwaves and serious lack of rain has had severe consequences on water availability in many counties in the UK and our gardens have really suffered.  With reports of heavy rain and possible flash flooding in the next few days there are a few things we can all do to ready our gardens and not waste that very precious resource – water!

When soil is parched through lack of water it becomes compacted and the gaps between particles gets smaller and smaller, as such any rain that falls won’t be able to penetrate and be absorbed by the plants or grass that are desperately in need. Instead, it will just run off causing the flash flooding they have said is highly likely. 

To avoid this you could ready your garden and make the very most of the rain by:

• Forking the borders - either lightly stab the soil with a garden fork or lightly dig the soil the purpose here is to open up the structure so that when the rain falls it can penetrate through.
• Aerating the lawn – also known as spiking, using a garden fork put it in the ground ideally about 10cms take a pace or two and repeat, unless you’re on heavy clay in which case it’d be better to leave it. 
• Create a hollow (think - polo mint) around trees or shrubs so the water has an interim bowl to be held in while the soil absorbs the water.
• Mulching your borders, the RHS says that by simply mulching a border (a good 5cm depth) means it can hold the equivalent of 20 days supply of water for the plants to unlock as they need it.

These recent heatwaves are going to be more common place so we need to try to get one step ahead and be better prepared for when the next one happens. Here are a few things Blue Daisy recommends you can do to be better prepared for our next heatwave:

• Install water butts, if you can have one per downpipe whether that’s the house, shed or greenhouse that would be great!
• Install water butt connectors, when one is full the rain will divert to the next water butt.
• If water butts aren’t your thing then you could consider a rain chain, so the rain falls from the gutter down the chain and into a collecting point of your choosing.  These are quite trendy now but a word of warning they can be a bit noisy so either site them well or ensure the chain reaches the water itself. 
• Consider how you can harvest grey water from your house, there are so many different ways:
  • from buying a water pump that attaches to your hose so you can water the garden from the bathtub
  • Capturing and reusing water from your washing machine
  • Installing a rainwater and/or grey water harvesting system under ground that you can access in times of drought.
  • A few simple ideas that won’t cost you anything:
    • Capture water from the taps while waiting for hot water to wash dishes
    • Empty your tumble dryer condenser into a watering can
    • Save any non-oily/fatty dish water to use later that evening to water the lawn or borders with. 

Finally, you could do a garden review.  Consider how much paving you have in your front and rear gardens that water can’t penetrate through.  Do you really need it all? Could you have a different surface that water could penetrate?  We all need to be stepping up and thinking and talking more about increasing the permeability of materials we are using in our gardens.  If you’re not sure where to begin and would like some advice do get in touch.