HEALTH PROTECTION AGENCY WARNS OF HEAT WAVE RISK

An official warning just published by the Health Protection Agency report says that there is a one-in-40 chance that the south-east of England will suffer a serious heat wave by 2012.

This is not good news for us gardeners who are already struggling to keep their favourite plants irrigated. Fitting a water butt can help in this situation by catching rainwater -but on a large scale this can look unsightly. A better, but more expensive solution, is the storage of grey water and rainwater in an underground tank.

Mulching of plants can also help to prevent water being lost by evaporation - but a far better plan is to adapt your planting scheme to include plants that are tolerant of drought.


We recently replanted a garden in Tunbridge Wells, Kent - that was suffering from summer drought and the effect of hosepipe bans. Some of my favourite drought tolerant plants in this scheme included Echinacea 'White Swan' and Echinacea 'Rubinglow', Liatris spicata and Phlomis russeliana.


We also had to tackle some dry shady areas in beds under trees. Our planting palette included Helleborus foetidus, white cyclamen, the drought tolerant evergreen fern Blechnum spicant and ddwarf white narcissus 'Thalia' amongst others...

For more drought tolerant planting ideas, see the Sustainable Design and Planning factsheets on my garden design studio website