When the weather is consistently dry and hot, it takes a toll on our gardens. And once hosepipe bans start being introduced, it can make you feel helpless as you watch the soil dry out and your favourite plants wither away.
While there are many things you can do to prepare your garden for a heatwave, there is only so much you can do about a lack of watering during a drought and hosepipe ban. Rainwater harvesting and rainscaping your garden are great ideas for long-term water issues, but is there anything you can do right now to help stop your garden drying out completely?
Luckily, there is one thing Monty Don recommends which can be a saviour for keeping bare ground soil moist. You might be surprised, but the best way to conserve moisture when watering isn't an option is mulching, according to the gardening icon.
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"If you've got bare soil, you can slow down evaporation by putting on a mulch. It doesn't matter what you use as long as it's an organic material, but garden compost is ideal," Monty explains.
"Spread a layer between the plants, making sure you put it onto damp soil first, so water if necessary. And this will slow down evaporation, making more of that precious moisture available to the plants themselves," he continues.
This is where you can use different ways to water your garden under a hosepipe ban and ensure your soil has some moisture before you lay your mulch down.
Although the timing of when to mulch is important, it's also key that you're using the right kind of mulch for your space and what it needs too.
"Garden compost is perfect for this, but if you don’t have any to hand or have run out, bagged manure or composted bark bought from the garden centre would work just as well," say the Gardeners' World experts.
Mulching is a fantastic way to create a more drought-tolerant garden, which is becoming increasingly important as summers get hotter each year. And ironically, mulch can also help protect your garden from frost when the winter weather arrives.
We'd recommend adding mulching to your list of August gardening jobs to help keep your plants temperature-regulated and hydrated, even during the driest weather.
We'd also recommend using the simple pencil trick to prioritise which plants to water during the hosepipe ban and conserve your water supply.
