Gardening without very much water by Ed Ikin, Head Gardener, Nymans, Handcross.
Drought tolerant gardening unsurprisingly, revolves around judicious application of water. Before rushing out with a watering can, ask yourself ‘does this plant really need a drink?’. All plants have a permanent wilting point beyond which they cannot ‘re-inflate’, but there is a surprising amount of tolerance before this occurs. Watering sparingly encourages roots to go deeper underground, searching out water and promote a natural, healthy pattern of growth. Over watered plants develop a bulky structure, dependent on high levels of water to sustain it. A sensibly watered plant will be leaner and less dependent on the watering can for survival.
Beneficial mycorrhizae, also known as friendly fungi, are ancient allies of plants that help them through stressful situations. They associate with plant roots and help the uptake of nutrients and water. There’s also limited evidence of them protecting healthy plants from undesirable diseases such as Honey Fungus. We apply a variety of friendly fungi when we plant and keep levels topped up throughout the growing season.
Plants from Mediterranean climates provide a wonderful selection for the ‘dry’ gardener. Sheltered South and West facing beds in Sussex can host a rich variety of exotica that allows gardeners to push the boundaries of hardiness. If you’ve got space why not try Beschorneria yuccoides – an spiky Mexican plant with a slightly alien quality. Mature plants produce an otherworldly bright pink flower spike, reminiscent of a psychedelic horse rearing out of spiky silver foliage. Mexico also provides a variety of compact Salvias that flourish in drought – Salvia x jameinsis has many attractive varients and we’ve had great success growing a Salvia x microphylla cultivar called ‘Hot Lips’ – a bicoloured plant that will be red, white or a mixture of both depending on the temperature.
From the Mediterranean comes the diminutive Morina longifolia, a plant with hostile foliage but a charming pink flower spike. Similarly spiky but pretty is the poppy Argemone from California. This will happily self-seed in the right conditions. Carob (Ceratonia siliqua) produces really striking seed pods, that were once so prized they were traded as currency – the term carat that signifies the value of diamonds is a derivation of carob. Brooms make a great choice for dry spots and come in a wide variety of colours – rich reds, yellows and oranges of the Cytisus, Spartiums and Genistas and white and pinks of Spartocytisus and Chordospartium.
