Global warming is a fickle thing. There we were in late July with two projects nearing the end of their hard landscaping, the thermometers hovering in the high 20’s and no sign of a drop of rainwater. Of course the next step of the garden build is the planting – but with the threat of another hot and dry summer we suggested to our clients that they should defer the planting for a month or so rather than try to keep a combined total of around £16,000 worth of plants alive under the baking sun.
Our clients were happy with this idea, but of course we all know what happened next. A wet, cool August would have been ideal for planting – hindsight is always 20/20! The plants are now scheduled for delivery in early September and should get plenty of time to establish in the Autumn, ready to grow away like mad in the Spring of 2009.
Of course an irrigation system may have been one way to alleviate some of the concerns of planting in the summer. The counter to this is that at Pure Garden Design we’re focused on using the right plant in the right place, so the plants are selected for the natural conditions on site rather than attempting to force a moisture loving plant to grow in a well drained site (or vice-versa). Furthermore, in the summer of 2006 the hosepipe bans meant that irrigation systems couldn’t be used anyway, defeating their purpose. Well timed planting and a little care during establishment will do just as much without the financial outlay, or the use of tens or hundreds of metres of plastic piping in the garden.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 27th, 2008 at 4:39 pm and is filed under Comment, Diary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
The long, hot summer of 2008
Global warming is a fickle thing. There we were in late July with two projects nearing the end of their hard landscaping, the thermometers hovering in the high 20’s and no sign of a drop of rainwater. Of course the next step of the garden build is the planting – but with the threat of another hot and dry summer we suggested to our clients that they should defer the planting for a month or so rather than try to keep a combined total of around £16,000 worth of plants alive under the baking sun.
Our clients were happy with this idea, but of course we all know what happened next. A wet, cool August would have been ideal for planting – hindsight is always 20/20! The plants are now scheduled for delivery in early September and should get plenty of time to establish in the Autumn, ready to grow away like mad in the Spring of 2009.
Of course an irrigation system may have been one way to alleviate some of the concerns of planting in the summer. The counter to this is that at Pure Garden Design we’re focused on using the right plant in the right place, so the plants are selected for the natural conditions on site rather than attempting to force a moisture loving plant to grow in a well drained site (or vice-versa). Furthermore, in the summer of 2006 the hosepipe bans meant that irrigation systems couldn’t be used anyway, defeating their purpose. Well timed planting and a little care during establishment will do just as much without the financial outlay, or the use of tens or hundreds of metres of plastic piping in the garden.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 27th, 2008 at 4:39 pm and is filed under Comment, Diary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.