Drought Garden

'Drought Garden' is the seventh installation in the Designer Bed, designed by Katie's Garden's Catherine McMillan, author of Gardening for the Uncommitted: What You Really Need To Know When You Don't Really Want To Know.

“East Anglia has long been classed as semi-arid and with summers getting hotter drought-tolerant plants are ever more important.

The easiest way to garden is to always remember: Right plant, right place. Go with nature, not against it.

Silver leaves are a strong sign that the plant can cope with hot, dry conditions: the silver reflecting away the sun’s rays.

From this starting point it was natural to follow a colour scheme of blues & purples and whites & silvers.
As a bonus, most of the plants provide year-round colour.”

Installed in mid-May 2023, the design was inspired by the extreme weather conditions of the previous summer, which saw record heat and very little rainfall.

The minimal colour tones evoke lazy, languid days where there is nothing to be done but pour a cold drink, pull up a deckchair and park yourself under a parasol.

The conditions in East Anglia, and coastal Suffolk in particular where we are located, lend themselves to drought-tolerant planting: free-draining soils means there is little risk of these plants rotting in wet winters, as can happen in other parts of the country.

Plants for dry and sandy soils are something of a speciality at Katie's Garden and lists of our favourites are available as a handout and on our Advice page here. In the Drought Garden we have aimed to showcase some of the less obvious alongside Mediterranean favourites. All the shrubs and perennials featured should be hardy enough to survive our winters.

With hosepipe bans becoming more common, reducing watering in the garden is ever more important. Top of the list is growing plants suited to the conditions of the garden. Adding soil improvers, manures, mulches and homemade compost to the soil will improve moisture retention, and a layer of bark chippings will reduce evaporation from the borders.

New planting will need watering until established; in most cases a month should be plenty enough time. This is best done at the start or end of the day. Make sure you are watering the roots not the leaves - you are trying to give the plant a drink not a wash!

This also applies to plants in pots. The addition of water-retaining crystal gels greatly reduces the amount of watering needed, and is something we now add to all our hanging baskets. Bark chippings keep the moisture in on top, and saucers keep it in at the bottom.

Every gardener should be looking to add water butts wherever they can. Not only do they save money and help the environment, plants will also grow better with rainwater rather than the limescaley tap water we have in East Anglia. This is particularly noticeable with Lavenders and the likes of Rhododendrons and Azaleas.

Many of the flowers in the garden trace back to the Asteracea family, meaning daisy-type blooms will feature throughout the summer. But unlike the previous hugely floriferous 'Bumblebee Banquet' and 'The Best of 25 Years of Katie's Garden' installations, the 'Drought Garden' is largely about shapes and textures.

The majority of the plants have silver leaves but there is still a great variation, with some having tactile furry leaves designed to trap moisture, to others with succulent waxy foliage for storing moisture, and some with cut filigree leaves to reduce evaporation. Against this understated backdrop a succession of white, blue and purple flowers should appear through the season, from Alliums, cornflowers and sweet rocket early on, to Erigerons and tansies through to tobacco plants and sea holly later in the summer.

The succulent planter, which should be able to survive on natural rainfall alone, includes Sempervivum Ruby Hearts, Sempervivum arachnoideum, Echeveria elegans and Lampranthus Purple.

The planter on the barrel has a dramatic Cordyline Torbay Dazzler as its centrepiece, surrounded by perennial Cerastrium tormentosum (aka Snow in the Summer), and bedding Pelargoniums Ivy Geranium White and Amethyst, and trailing Dichondra, and we look forward to seeing the cascading effect develop as the months pass!

Adding a little extra colour in the border are a few more from our basket & patio ranges, including Nemesia Lady Jane, Nemesia Sunmesia Denim.