Water Deeply and Less Often

The single most useful change most of us can make during a dry spell is to stop dribbling a little water about every evening and instead give plants a proper soak two or three times a week. A light sprinkle only wets the top centimetre or two of soil, and that encourages shallow, lazy roots that come to depend on you entirely. A thorough soak — roughly 10 to 15 litres per square metre on open ground — drives moisture down 20 to 25cm, and the roots follow it. Deep roots mean plants that can ride out a fortnight of high pressure without wilting.

Test how far your water has actually gone with a trowel about an hour after watering. If only the top 5cm are damp, you have been too gentle. Aim for at least 15cm of moist soil under vegetables, and more under established fruit. On sandy soils you will need to water more often, but still in generous amounts; on heavy clay, water slowly and in stages so it soaks in rather than running off into the path.

Time Your Watering Well

Early morning is the best slot of the day. The soil is cool, evaporation is low, and any foliage that gets splashed dries off through the morning, which reduces the risk of disease. Early evening is a decent second choice, giving plants a chance to drink overnight. What you want to avoid is late-night watering of wet foliage, particularly around potatoes and tomatoes, where damp leaves sitting for hours invite blight.

Midday watering is not the catastrophe some gardeners claim, but it is wasteful — you can lose half of it to the sun before it reaches a root. If a plant is flagging badly at noon, however, save it, and water again properly in the cool of the evening. Always water the soil rather than the leaves. A can with a rose, tipped low and aimed at the base of the plant, is far more effective than a hose waved overhead like a sprinkler.

Mulch Like You Mean It

Mulch is the closest thing to a holiday from watering. A layer 5 to 7cm thick, laid over damp soil, can cut evaporation by half or more and keeps the soil temperature steadier too.

• Water first, then mulch. Mulching dry ground simply locks the drought in.
• Keep it clear of stems. Leave a small gap around trunks and stems to avoid collar rot.
• Top it up. A thin scattering dries out and blows away; you want a proper blanket.
• Be careful with fresh grass clippings. Applied thickly they mat down and shed water; mix them with shreddings or let them wilt first.

If you have not mulched yet, a temporary layer of wet newspaper or cardboard under a topping of compost works well around courgettes, beans and soft fruit. Well-rotted manure is excellent around hungry crops, but keep it off the stems.

Prioritise Thirsty Crops

When water or time is short, rank your plants and concentrate your efforts where they will do the most good. Not everything deserves the same attention.

• Top priority: leafy salads, spinach, chard, courgettes, cucumbers, tomatoes, runner and French beans in flower, peas in pod, celery, celeriac, and anything growing in containers or grow bags.
• Medium priority: brassicas, carrots and beetroot during a long dry spell, onions and leeks as the bulbs swell, and newly planted fruit bushes.
• Lower priority: established herbs such as rosemary, thyme, sage and oregano; maincrop potatoes once the haulm is dying back; deep-rooted perennial fruit; and naturally drought-tolerant plants like lavender.

Newly planted trees and shrubs are a special case. They need steady water for their first two or three summers, so a full can tipped slowly around the roots each week is time well spent.

Make Every Drop Work Harder

Small tricks add up. Sink a plastic bottle with its base cut off, neck downwards, beside a tomato or courgette and fill it — the water goes straight to the roots instead of running across the surface. A bottomless plant pot plunged in beside a squash does the same job. A soaker hose or drip line laid along a row and covered with mulch will use perhaps a third of the water of a sprinkler, and puts it exactly where it is needed.

Do not leave soil bare and capped. A light forking over the surface breaks the crust so water soaks in rather than running away. On clay, water in stages: one can, a ten-minute wait, then another. And if a hosepipe ban arrives, remember that water from a butt, a bath or a washing-up bowl is perfectly good for fruit bushes, ornamentals and established beds. Use grey water in rotation rather than on the same spot daily, and keep it off salads and anything eaten raw.

Look After the Soil and It Will Look After You

Every dry summer is a reminder that soil rich in organic matter holds water far better than a dusty, lifeless tilth. Dig in compost each autumn, keep the worms happy, and next year's dry spell will be far less frightening. Add a decent watering can with a good rose, a willingness to walk the plot in the cool of the evening to see what is actually flagging, and a little patience. Some plants will sulk and a few will bolt — that is part of it. But deep, deliberate watering of the crops that matter most, tucked under a proper mulch, will carry you and your kitchen garden through the driest of Julys.