Dysfunctional Planner

Next week is August and the temperatures are set to soar again. It may shock you to hear that in England, known for lush green lawns and a lot of rain. We can’t cope when it comes to the weather!

We are such a mild country that any extremes completely throw us off!

Snow = complete shut down even of the tubes that stay underground . Councils run out of salt for the roads and then stock up straight away, hoarding there salt that they won’t use for another few years.

Leaves on the track = this happens every year and every year we have cancellations and delays. It’s autumn, the leaves fall, clean them up.

Drought = this one is not as frequent but every one remembers hose pipe bans, winter and spring it rains all the time but do we store the water. Why bother!

This mild mannered country is poor at planning and over reactive. So what does this mean for the average gardener? No hose pipes but watering cans are allowed but better ideas are buckets in the shower and washing up bowels full of useable water. I don’t have an issue of reducing my water. I have an issue with my government not having a clue when it comes to being proactive. Fixing issues related to the weather and nature rather building a yacht the queen doesn’t want! They love pomp and celebrations but don’t like to fix the practical things.

What does it mean for me?

I only have a small garden, my plants are all in containers so watering cans won’t take me too long to do. If a ban comes in I will water every other day rather than every day and have a bucket in the shower so I can collect any excess.

A hosepipe ban is never great for the gardener . In the new house we have four water butts and I am hoping to put a discrete on at the front of the property as well so I don’t have to traipse water through the house. I will look at investing in some drought happy plants, all the older plants will be fine but people keep filling their gardens with rows and rows of hydrangeas that need a lot of water.

Times are a changing and it’s time we start preparing, storing and taking care of our green spaces more and more.