Drought gardening

Sat, Apr 14, 2012

Climate Change, Gardening with Mediterranean Plants

 

Thousands of people will be  visiting their local garden centre this Spring to buy annual bedding plants such as petunias, lobelia, bizzy lizzies.

Maybe this year with drought conditions and a hosepipe ban just a week away, garden centres might offer alternative plant ideas to beat the drought ?

SAY NO TO BEDDING PLANTS THIS SUMMER 

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Think about buying plants that needs less water.

BUY MEDITERRANEAN PLANTS FOR SUMMER DROUGHT

These are perfect for long periods with no or very low rainfall and can reappear after the UK winter.

Try to buy plants with silver/grey waxy leaves as they will cope better with a lack of water.

Watch this video about drought loving plants http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYQr9XXItrs&feature=player_embedded

Mediterranean plants will provide a much better consistent display in hot temperatures as well as being low maintenance without all that wasteful watering.There are many different flowering and non-flowering ones to choose – see my Mediterreanean plants lists

http://www.myclimatechangegarden.com/blog/category/climate-change-gardening/plants/mediterranean

Here are two of my favourite drought loving plants that have beautiful long lasting flowers plus these plants will come back every summer. They require ABSOLUTELY NO WATERING and are perfect for low maintenance gardens that will survive the 2012 hose pipe ban.

BE WATER WISE AVOID BEDDING PLANTS IN SUMMER 2012

 http://www.myclimatechangegarden.com/blog/rock-rose-sun-rose

http://www.myclimatechangegarden.com/blog/african-lily

This post was written by:

- who has written 872 posts on My Climate Change Garden.

I am not an experienced gardener - more of an enthusiastic amateur who learns by trial and error and who is keen to "manage" the effects of shifting weather patterns on my garden. Writing this blog is my passion and it has evolved over 12 years to inspire engagement with climate change outside our back doors, in our personal gardens and green spaces. My mission is to fertilise and expand this platform to grow a community of global gardeners communicating about the effects of climate change on our plants and exploring how each individual can make small changes in our lives to become more sustainable. The future of our gardens and #OurPlanet is in our hands - please plant your own seeds for our collective sustainable future.

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2 Comments For This Post

  1. Gaz Says:
    March 27th, 2012 at 11:21 am

    Planting for the conditions is the best way forward, plus making sure you do things to conserve water. eg collect water from the roof (its amazing how much will come from just a shed roof for instance). Plus mulch the ground and use ‘grey’ water from the house, being careful not to use anything that will damage plants.

  2. Angus McDonald Says:
    March 27th, 2012 at 11:22 am

    If, as they say, our winters will become milder to the point of being frost free then we may have a reversal of seasons. Our traditional bedding plants will survive the winter, and so best grown then when we can hope to receive more water.

    If you must having bedding plants then face the (exciting) prospect that our summer beddings will now consist of Mediterranean and drought tolerant plants from around the world e.g. Osteospernums.

    The world changes, make the most of it. 15,000 years ago most of Britain was under 2Km of ice, 500,000 years ago it was sub-tropical, inhabited my lions, hippos and the like.

    MadmcFungus