Drought tolerance

The front garden is coping a lot better than I am

We’ve been bickering a lot about open windows. Some people in the house think they are a security risk at night. Others are worried about bugs. Somehow the real danger - the wrath of an overheated middle aged woman - is not yet clear to the people I live with. I’m sure they’ll learn.

Unlike the hot mess inside the house, my sun-bleached front garden is doing much better. You may remember that it is gravel on top of whatever was underneath before the previous residents put gravel on it. A mixture of builders sand, clay and topsoil. Some parts drain quickly, others sit in water when there are heavy downpours, so it has been a trial and error to see what survives not only the scorching summer heatwaves but also the biblical winter downpours. There is no tap in the front garden, and I am lazy. So plants get watered when they first go in the ground - and that’s it.

As it turns out, the plants that survive this are:

• Bearded irises

• Erigeron karvinskianus

• Oenothera lindheimeri

• Verbena bonariensis

• Stipa tenuissima

• Various hardy succulents, largely positioned on little gravel mounds so they never sit in water

• Annual, self-seeded Californian poppies which return each year

• Opium poppies

• Self seeded foxgloves (I’m a bit shocked about this, but while small, they are perfectly formed)

• Echinacea (even in the soggy bit! I have no idea how or why)

• Rudbeckia

• Hardy salvia

• Roman chamomile

• Creeping thyme

• Red Valerian (I didn’t plant this one - it planted itself)

• Armeria maritima

• Hardy geraniums

• Statice - ornamental sea lavender, grown from seed and planted out last year - meant to be an annual but it is proving to be perennial for some reason!

• Asters

• Sisyrinchium striatum

• Phlomis russeliana (it took three years to flower though)

• Species tulips

• Muscari

• Alliums

• Hollyhocks - I have a gorgeous red one flowering now, grown from scattered seed last autumn, and there are more seedling appearing

In the free-draining-only bits

• Lavender

• Rosemary

• Sage

• Oregano

What has not survived/is looking pretty iffy

• Euphorbias - I tried some Wulfenii and a purple variety. The purple one has struggled through but I think would prefer some shade (the ones I planted in my north facing back garden are much, much happier). The Wulfenii has flowered but refused to grow any new leaves. I’m waiting until the end of summer to see if it recovers.

• Sea lavender - I dreamed of the garden becoming a waving see of low-flowering purple flowers but the plants I bought in Norfolk have never come back

• Nepeta - never returned from last year

• Bronze fennel - I’ve tried planting it direct and throwing seeds, to no avail.

Needless to say, the dandelions are still, also, thriving. My plan now (well, not now, but later in the year when there is less risk of immediate death) is to bulk up the grasses, divide the iris tubers and allow more self-seeding. My main priority is hiding the hideous brickwork and all the leggy stems of the verbena and gaura.

But in the short-term, my focus is on making another iced coffee and finally getting on with client emails. May the weather gods be kind to you and your garden.