Chairman’s Chit Chat September 2026
The long, dry and extremely hot summer has been a challenge for fruit and vegetable and ornamental gardens as well as for gardeners.
Here in Copmanthorpe, there has been no meaningful rain, just the odd few spots on a couple of occasions, since the middle of June. This has made life extremely difficult especially on the allotment.
In the thirty years we have had the plot I cannot ever remember having to do so much watering. On our site, “officially,” we are not allowed to use hosepipes other than to fill water butts. For me, this is not a problem as I prefer to use watering cans because although it is hard work lugging two gallon watering cans up and down the plot at least I know how much water I have given each crop.
If the predictions are correct with the weather patterns becoming more extreme, resulting in warmer, wetter winters and hotter, dryer summers then we will have to rethink the way we garden.
According to the RHS the total UK Horticultural Industry is worth £38 billion to national GDP and supports c722,000 jobs.
This being the case will the necessary change in how we garden, including the food stuffs and ornamentals we grow, be led by such organisations as the RHS and DEFRA or will it be it be from (to coin a phrase) “the grass roots up” putting pressure on these bodies to come up with practical solutions.
As gardeners there are ways we can help ourselves to some degree. Instead of adorning our front gardens with the usual array of readily available bedding plants we could learn from the likes of Beth Chatto and seek out drought tolerant plants for a more Mediterranean style of planting.
If you wish to stick with the traditional then get in as much organic matter into your soil as you can lay yours hands on and either fork in or use as a mulch to help retain moisture.
Perhaps the most important thing is water management, how we can harvest and store it and how we use it wisely.
There are certainly challenges ahead but we are gardeners and we shall overcome!