Gardening in a drought

RipleyG

A few pics as promised, our minimal watering garden - lots of fairly drought tolerant plants, mostly clover lawn, and last night's veg harves. and fairI dr

Sapindus

RipleyG said:

A few pics as promised, our minimal watering garden - lots of fairly drought tolerant plants, mostly clover lawn, and last night's veg harves. and fairI dr

That's a lovely lawn!

RipleyG

Sapindus said:

That's a lovely lawn!

Thanks! It was a haze of yellow with buttercups and black medick a month ago. I quite enjoy watching it change - and the goldfinches spend hours hopping through the grass looking for flower seeds. Definitely worth not watering/weeding it for that! 

LessImpecunious

RipleyG said:

Sapindus said:

That's a lovely lawn!

Thanks! It was a haze of yellow with buttercups and black medick a month ago. I quite enjoy watching it change - and the goldfinches spend hours hopping through the grass looking for flower seeds. Definitely worth not watering/weeding it for that! 

Agreed! re. the lovely lawn - how often do you mow ?

RipleyG

@LessImpecunious thank you. No hard and fast rules - more when it's warm and damp, much less when it's cold or hot. At most, once a fortnight through summer/early autumn - but only if it's actually grow. Possibly every 10 days in the spring when it's growing fast. What you see below was cut 10 days ago - it'll be at least a week before we do it again. 
 
We don't go too short either. Obvious when you think about it - but if you're cutting off the green part that produces plant energy, you're weakening the plant. 

We've been leaving some areas altogether and just cutting paths, and find areas shaded by shrubs stay MUCH greener. Pics attached - 1 showing an area of clover next to just grass - you'll see how much yellower the grass is. Another showing purple self-help and moss in the shady of a largish lilac- feels decadently green in current temperatures, and is lovely and squooshy to sit on 😁

Won't be going back to watering the lawn, that's for sure! 

-taff

I had one patch of clover in the thing that was the lawn, it's so lovely to walk on, and it doesn't go brown and horrible plus the bees love it when it flowers and it doesn't really need a lot fo mowing. Don't know why it isn't used more! 

LessImpecunious

Looks like you have lovely fine grasses too Ripley, which helps. I can get the same sort of effect as you where I have very thin soil, but in other places the grasses grow very thick and lush - not helped by the less drought-like conditions here in mid Wales... I have some patches that need mowing c. every 3 days (I don't!), and others that can be left for weeks. Adds to the biodiversity I suppose... 

LessImpecunious

PS Clover seems to be doing particularly well this year, and the Selfheal...

RipleyG

Just popped back to share another benefit of our non-watered/non-weedkillered lawn - the myriad birds. We've always had birds visiting the pond, but they used to fly in then head out. With the lawn as it is now they hang around for hours, and we've multiple breeding pairs around the shrubs. Not my finest pic, but from last night - a small gaggle of starlings searching for ants. What you can't see are the 3 blackbirds and thrush to the right picking flying insects from the clover flowers, family of goldfinches eating wild flowers gone to seed in the lawn, baby Robins bouncing around for worms in the shade under the shrubs, and wagtails flying for insects around the pond. We can also hear the sparrows, long-tailed and blue tits, and sparrows. They've all been here all afternoon.

And yes, it's pretty yellow now. But as  someone who has to spend a lot of time on this sofa after becoming disabled a few years ago, this approach to our lawn has been an invaluable addition to my life, not just the wildlife. I can honestly say I wouldn't trade it for a dull stretch of manicured green. 

SuzeQStan

A feast for the eyes @RipleyG - we have some large patches of clover and I wish I could get rid of all the grass and just have clover -  but I’ve read to do that I would have to cut all the turf up and seed. Even though it’s a small lawn I reckon it’s possibly more than my back could take to do.