GARDENING: saving plants that are really struggling in dry weather

SINCE I started working professionally as a gardener in Cumbria in 2005 I’ve experienced some dry, reasonably prolonged periods that tested the plants, but nothing like the past two months, writes TOM ATTWOOD. It has been unprecedented and after the Arctic spring blast the challenges have come thick and fast this season. It’s increasingly surreal where our nursery and garden boundary sits as trees young and mature are shedding vast numbers of leaves resulting in a confusing autumnal picture coupled with the intense warmth of mid-summer. Understandably, I’m having an ever-increasing number of conversations with people genuinely concerned that established trees and shrubs in particular in their own gardens are beyond salvaging. One thing that is worth remembering is the sheer resilience of so many of our garden plants. Despite looking utterly dreadful the majority of plants have the capacity to shut down if necessary. Whether they make an attempt to sprout fresh leaves before the end of the growing season will depend on certain factors, light levels, temperature, available moisture and such. A shrub or tree can often shed all of their leaves in these circumstances; we have a gorgeous eight-year-old katsura tree (Cercidiphyllum) which has lost 90 per cent of its leaves. It looks unsightly but what you’re seeing is a cunning survival mechanism. It’s a somewhat different story with herbaceous, cottage garden plants as these will fail if there is not sufficient water. Most perennials do not posses the extensive root systems of trees or shrubs and rely more on surface moisture and they will suffer fastest with drought conditions. We have some large sections of the garden where on the shallowest soil the tallest perennials are in pretty bad shape. Unable to water these plants, I’m cutting them back to a foot off the ground. It scuppers the flowering for this year but it does at least massively cut down on the water needs of the plants and gives it a fighting chance of survival in the short term.