Dawn patrols, sun-drunk gardens and tactical watering

Imagine you’re an annual plant – adored, laboured over, and loved by your gardener through sowing, pricking out and potting on. Then suddenly your tiny roots are dispatched from the cosy greenhouse or kitchen windowsill to take up residence in the vastness of garden soil or a no-nonsense patio pot. When this heatwave arrived with beating force, these molly-coddled plants must have felt like they’d been dropped in the wild west!

That said, that didn’t stop me from standing out there just now in the heat willing my cosmos, zinnia and sunflowers to hurry up and actually do something, the joy I experienced on first germination, suddenly turning into mild frustration. See? You’re absolutely not alone in the ‘Just get on with it and flower’ stakes. Mid-July has this way of making us all feel horribly impatient.

Come on you pots!!! Photographed this morning.

One minute we’re admiring the potential, the next we’re muttering at perfectly respectable plants for not being three weeks further along. It’s not just annuals either that are taking the blame – hurry up, will you dahlia, keep going peas and beans and how long does it actually take for an echinacea’s flower to fully open?

Elsewhere in the garden, I’m aghast, but not surprised given the weather, that my sweet peas and courgettes are showing signs of mildew, I find myself wading through borders I know I shouldn’t be standing on to prop Cephalaria gigantea, Veronicastrum and Crocosmia, all of which grew hard and fast in the early spring sunshine, now appearing to be drunk with all that sun on their heads!

Last week I wrote about the climate-resilient plant swaps we’re making at Hampton Court Palace – long-term solutions for our changing climate.

Our Hampton Court Palace Climate Resilient Plant Swaps

Today though, I’m focused on immediate survival tactics for the plants we already have, because let’s face it, even the keenest gardeners are struggling in this heat. I promise not simply ‘group your pots together’ or ‘fit an irrigation system here’, just hard-won tips that actually work.

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· Strategic watering advice – the truth about midday watering myths and clever water-saving tactics

· Plant support strategies for heat-drunk giants – keeping your borders upright when everything’s leaning like tipsy party guests

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