3 Tips For Dealing With Drought In Your Garden

Drought is a problem for any avid gardener as it means your precious plants are missing one key component to help them stay healthy. When no rain is falling, and the sun is beating down, it is hard to give your plants the moisture they need to grow. 

Consequently, you end up with a brown and dry garden that’s basically had all the moisture sucked out of it. 

While you can’t control the weather, there are things you can do to deal with drought in your garden?

1. Water your garden regularly

Clearly, you need to water your garden as regularly as possible during the warmer months. Some plants need to be watered every couple of days, while other areas – like your lawn – only need watering once or twice a week. 

It is a good idea to try and conserve rainwater throughout the year, so you have a supply of water when you need it. Rain barrels work perfectly here, so you aren’t using your home water supply all the time. As a benefit, you’re cutting down on water usage, helping the planet at the same time. 

2. Help your garden retain moisture

The issue many people have is they water their garden during a drought, and then see all the moisture evaporate within a few hours. This happens when your garden isn’t retaining the moisture as effectively as it could. 

Two things can be done to correct this. Firstly, you can use organic matter as mulch to trap the moisture in the soil for longer. Secondly, you can use humus compost to do the same thing. Humus is a spongy substance that means it soaks up and retains a lot of moisture, which is perfect for keeping a garden healthy and well soaked during periods of drought. 

3. De-weed your garden

Nobody likes seeing weeds in their garden, but they do more damage than you think. As unsightly as they are, the biggest problem is that you have other plants competing for water and nutrients with your existing ones. In essence, they are draining your soil of all the water you put down. 

So, when periods of hot weather and no rain come around, your garden dries out thanks to the weeds. Keep up with regular weeding to remove these pests from your garden. Remember, a weed is basically a plant that’s grown without your permission. Sometimes, you like the natural things that grow in your garden. But, if they’re getting in your way and depriving the rest of your plants of being healthy, you need to get rid of them. The video above will give you some great tips to help you out!

Typically, droughts happen during the hottest months of the year. So, if you’re not currently at that stage yet, you can still prepare your garden for periods of dry weather. Collect and store as much rainwater as possible, and ensure that your garden consistently gets a good dose of water and nutrients. Focus on weeding your garden space and using mulch or compost to trap moisture in the soil as well.