Taking Care of Your Garden in a Heatwave

Here are some top tips for maintaining your garden during the hot weather!

Water wisely

It’s easy to want to drench gardens and plants in water when the weather is hot, but it’s important to get the balance right.

Some expert gardeners say that it’s actually better to avoid watering your lawn at all during a heatwave, as grass is exceptionally good at dealing with a lack of water, especially if it’s an established lawn. Even if the grass begins to brown, it will soon bounce back once the rain comes. In fact, not routinely watering your lawn encourages the roots to grow in order to seek out moisture!

If your grass does need to be watered, it is better to do so thoroughly and infrequently, as opposed to little and often, and should be done either first thing in the morning or in the evening.

The most natural way to water your garden is by using rainfall collected in a water butt. But, if there hasn’t been any rainfall for a while, you can also use bathwater once it has cooled! Just be sure to only use this on inedible plants or those that require cooking before eating!

Water butts, hosepipes, watering cans and other equipment are available from our Midgley centre.

Minimise your mowing

During periods of low rainfall, experts suggest that mower blades should be raised to avoid cutting the grass too short, as this can dry the grass out further. Also ensure that the mower blades are sharp to avoid ‘bruising’ the green leaves and giving the grass a straw-like appearance.

Protect potted plants

Potted plants should be moved into shade where possible and should only be watered first thing in the morning or later in the evening, when the temperature has dropped. Shade netting works great if you are unable to move your plants out of direct sunlight.

Add a moisture-protecting layer of mulch

Adding up to 5cm of mulch to moist soil in garden borders and around veg and potted plants will help the soil to maintain its moisture. It is especially important to cover roots that are visible at the surface, in order to prevent them burning, and to add a generous amount of mulch to vegetables that require a lot of water.

Bagged mulch is available online or from our Midgley centre.

Visit us in-store at Midgley, Wentworth or Brigg to pick up your gardening and landscaping essentials!