How are your gardens coping with the dry weather?

I only water pots and new plants in the ground every other day.

 

Well yes agree, nobody likes trying to grow in clay as a top soil.
But large shrubs and trees should not really be only rooted in the topsoil but sending roots further down into the sub soil.
That is how I see it, once they get those roots down there watering is not required.
Smaller plants that don't deep root I can see need water to look good.
But that is just my opinion, must say I have never lost a shrub or tree to drought

 

Very hot in Ramsgate. The first time ever I've seen Cabbages suffer in the heat all covered up with dust sheets now.

 

My greenie soul hates pouring drinking water on plants, so I try to be very careful. With this drought I'm now flooding the important bits (containers, newly planted plants and anything obviously drooping) twice a week. Normally I'd do this once a week.

I have also been watering the tiny patch of front lawn we have worked so hard on. The rest of the lawns are allowed to turn crispy brown.

It's odd though, plants that are in general not tender up here in Newcastle seem to survive quite well now with mild and dry winters. Bulbous begonias are re-appearing now, and a discarded Spider plant is just fine after a winter outdoors.

 

It's definitely making me eye up the THREE empty water butts we have and sigh.

(They're empty because they need to be connected to the new shed's gutters, which we haven't done yet as we only recently built it.)

 

For the first time in years had to get the hose out to water the hellebores and rhubarb, a few years back it was the same but in the height of summer.

 

I remember that summer I think, it was the year I started gardening.
On one hand, I found it lovely, because I am from a very warm place originally. But the garden is detached with no direct water, so keeping everything watered was a bit of a pain.
I tried doing it all in one go at the evening, but it took forever.
In the end I resorted to fill up and bring downstairs a watering can every single time I went out of the house. By the end of the day every plant would have had a sip or two.

Actually, I read somewhere that this might be the driest spring ever on record, but I am not sure if that is actually correct.

 

In principle, I agree with you.

However, I went googling for the species Shiney unfortunately lost, and it seems that it is not always the case that the roots will go deep:

Viburnum plicatum Japanese Snowball, Japanese Snowball Viburnum, Doublefile Viburnum PFAF Plant Database
Landscape Uses:Border, Massing, Screen, Specimen. An easily grown plant, it succeeds in most soils but is ill-adapted for poor soils and for dry situations
Plants are surface-rooting and are very susceptible to damage by hoeing, drought or water-logging

Philadelphus Care Guide: How To Grow Mock Orange | DIY Garden
Once established it features exceptional drought hardiness

Shrubs With Shallow Root Systems
Viburnums are shallow-rooted shrubs that provide interest in the garden during all four seasons.

So, the Philadelphus should have survived, but the other two might be more sensitive to lack of water..
Then, of course, I am just quoting what I found online, who knows if it is even correct.

 

Thanks @Aldo interesting.
Must admit I've never grown a Viburnum, so maybe it is more to do with the plant than the soil.
I guess the fact that most of my plants are pretty much species as opposed to varieties means I'm probably growing the tougher versions of most things anyway.

 

My Viburnum never gets watered and I have seen them growing wild here, hence me buying one 14/15 years ago.