Watering the garden in hot weather

[Daisy]

I know I'm not the only one who has a patch of straw where a lawn used to be, and I know it will green up again when the rain comes, but this prolonged dry weather has now affected our two apple trees as well. They're not great trees at the best of times, but at the moment they look very sad, with curling leaves and apples dropping off too soon.

Yesterday I made a kind of shallow moat round one of them and gave it about 50 litres of water over a couple of hours. I'm wondering how much more it needs to make a difference to it. Any ideas or suggestions, please?

[Enfys]

Sounds like a good idea, Daisy, hope they recover. Our grass crunches when you walk on it, however, we had rain overnight and it’s amazing how much better it looks this morning. There’s about 6 inches of water in the water butts so we must have had a fair bit. I’ve been watering sparingly, just the plants that need it and they all look ok and they loook much happier this morning.

[Oma]

I have been watering my apple tree every other night as its in a tub it doesn't dry out as quick and I have gravel on the top stopping and evaporation
Not giving it a lot about 2 litre at a time and its doing ok ,
Pots are getting the same and my herbs ,
My Grass is wonderfully Green

[Plantaholic]

Not sure Daisy, so far our fruit trees are looking okay, the young trees don't have much fruit as they blossomed early and were caught by frost. I haven't watered any fruit trees, presume their roots are very deep. Perhaps it is the scorching sun affecting the leaves and fruit not so much the lack of water.

[Glammanana]

We only have a small garden area at the back of our bungalow which is very dry and straw like at present,all the baskets are watered from those pellets you put in when you go away to keep the soil moist and they seem to be doing the job.
John has been and bought 2 x water butts from Homebase the slim ones one for the front side which is by our neighbours drive way so next year we will be able to share any water collected and one for the back for his vegs.He is certainly into this gardening thingy now,he said yesterday he is going to join The Green Party and wear cheese cloth shirts

[Plantaholic]

Send us a pic. Glamm when your OH is wearing cheese cloth shirts. Pleased to hear he is enjoying his garden.

[Glammanana]

Plant,I will have to take him to Charity shops for a look,he has taken to wearing his Crocks for use in the garden he's gone all Monty Dom on me.

[Nana]

Love it Glam.👍

[Nanto2girls]

Our grass looks like straw, except on the patio, thats artificial grass.
Hubby keeps watering the bedding plants,plum tree and the oriental lillies regularly.
The rest get watered every couple of days,and up to now,they are doing ok.

[Daisy]

The apple tree I've watered is looking a bit better. Yesterday I dug down to see how far the water had penetrated and it seemed quite deep. Fingers crossed.

When I've weeded round the other tree I'll do the same with that, but at the moment I'm trying to sort out a rockery/water feature which has become overgrown with weeds. I knew it would be quite a difficult job, but it's harder than I expected, and my knees are complaining a lot this morning!

[Gemini]

We have only watered the greenhouse plants (Cucumbers and tomatoes) and things in hanging baskets and containers. Apart from dry grass everything seems to be standing up well to the hot dry spell.

I do water a border in my mum's front garden twice a week as those are bedding plants and I fear they may die.

I hope your tree is OK Daisy.

[Daisy]

Thanks Gem. It's looking a little less sorry for itself, but I doubt it will have its usual crop of enormous, sweet juicy apples this year. It's a very early fruiter - usually end of July and into August. Our garden 'enjoys' a mixture of ancient builders' rubble and solid clay, plus neighbours' trees competing for moisture and blocking light, it's an uphill battle.