With Climate change leading to more frequent drier and hotter summers, improving the drought resilience of your garden is likely to be well worth the time and money.

Essex is the driest county in Britain and certain parts of Essex are officially classified as semi-arid and in Danbury is certainly feels like that this year. Records show that we have always had periods of dry weather. However the extreme temperatures this year have also compounded the impact on the soil moisture deficit, a measure of the how dry the soil is, which is near to record levels.

Although we have had little or no rainfall in the last couple of months the drought we are experiencing this year is still less severe than 1976 as the hot, dry summer of that year came of the back of the particularly dry winter of 1975/76. The winter just gone was not unusually dry and 2021 was above averagely wet as a whole. The current drought conditions are likely to continue into next year if this coming winter does not have high rainfall. So it is important to start preparing your garden for next year during this coming autumn and winter.

Tips for conserving moisture and minimising water consumption:

1. Mulch your borders to reduce evaporation from the soil: this is best done in early spring (after soil moisture levels have recovered). Mulch is any material that can provide a cover over bare soil to aid water retention. Ideally a 6cm layer should be applied. A cost effective method is use your own home made garden compost (a mixture of grass clippings and leaves makes a very good compost) however a good alternative is shredded woody material. A garden shredder is very cost effective tool for re-using this material. Alternatively you can buy landscaping bark or other mulch products from a garden centre. The mulch, will slowly decompose and gradually be drawn into the soil by worms and will disappear over a couple of years. However this process is great for improving the condition of your soil as well as for water retention so your plants get a double benefit. Depending on what mulch material you use this process can take a year (with garden compost) or longer with woody material.

2. Plant trees to provide some shade – many of our favourite plants are not suited to hot beating sun and low humidity and therefore will get scorched in hot weather if fully exposed to the midday sun. Planting trees with shrubs as an understory will help the more delicate plants survive hot weather. Deciduous trees offer shade in summer when they are in leaf but allow sunlight pass through in winter when the leaves are down. Trees are best planted in autumn and need to be looked after for the first few years until their roots are established.