How to keep your plants healthy during hosepipe bans with five water-saving tips – from free water butts to saucers

IF your garden is anything like mine, everything everywhere is gasping for a drink. These heatwaves have been brutal — even if you’ve installed a clever (if slightly confusing) irrigation system. Beat the hosepipe ban legally by using grey water: from your washing-up, bath water or tumble dryer Credit: Getty Tom Massey, garden designer and author of Waterwise Garden on his top five cheap ways of saving water Credit: Times Media Ltd And it doesn’t feel as if this weather pattern is going to change any time soon. But it’s taught me a vital lesson. I need to think far more carefully about what the best plants are for my garden, going forward. Clue: not thirsty ones. Sign up for the Fabulous newsletter Thank you! And with hosepipe bans in force in several counties, it’s also vital we start thinking about clever ways to conserve water. Tom Massey, garden designer and author of Waterwise Garden, told me: “The three most effective ways to conserve water all begin with thinking about the landscape as a whole. “First, improve your soil by adding organic matter such as compost. “Healthy soils act like a sponge, storing rainwater for plants to draw on during dry spells. Don’t pull the plug – recycle that bath water Credit: Getty Hosepipe bans are spreading rapidly across the UK Credit: Alamy “Second, choose plants suited to local conditions. The old phrase ‘right plant, right place’ has never been more relevant, and resilient planting will always need less supplementary watering. “Finally, try to capture rainwater. A water butt is a great start, but gardens can also be designed to store and absorb rainfall through features such as rain gardens and planted swales. Most read in Fabulous “The biggest shift is to stop thinking of rain as something to get rid of, and see it as a precious resource to capture and use.” Here are my top five cheap ways of saving water: 1. Re-use grey water: from your washing-up, bath water or tumble dryer. 2. Change the time you water: early in the morning or evening when the day is coolest means more of it makes it to plants. 3. Free water butts: many regional suppliers, such as Yorkshire Water, occasionally offer free water butts or deep discounts to customers. 4. Add saucers: Putting these under your pots makes a big difference. 5. Set mower blades higher in hot months and leave clippings on the lawn, which creates a mulch that helps shade the soil and retain moisture. Also in Veronica's Column this week.... Top tips, gardening news, Plant of the Week and a gardening bundle competition For more gardening content, follow me @biros_and_bloom WIN! WESTLAND’S ultimate gardening bundle, worth more than £250, contains every type of feed you can think of, plus seeds, secateurs, gloves and more. Enter at thesun.co.uk/gardenbundle. Or write to Sun Garden Bundle Competition, PO Box 3190, Colchester, Essex, CO2 8GP. Include your name, age, email or phone. Entries close 11.59pm on August 8, 2026.UK residents 18+ only. T&Cs apply. THIS WEEK’S JOB: PRUNE wisteria, and pick runner beans, courgettes, French beans, tomatoes and cucumbers as often as possible so the plants keep producing. A HANDY GARDEN HACK: THE Hampton Hack is a brutal but rewarding type of prune you can use to rejuvenate early-flowering perennials. Named after the annual RHS Hampton garden show, which returns next July, it involves cutting faded, straggly plants down to roughly 10cm above ground. Removing those old faded buds stimulates new ones at the base. It also prevents aggressive self-seeding and rapidly clears out dusty summer borders. After chopping, water the soil deeply and apply a high-quality fertiliser. Within two to three weeks, you should start to see a second flush of late summer flowers. The technique works really well on geraniums, alchemilla mollis, salvias, delphiniums and lupins, keeping summer borders healthy and productive. PLANT OF THE WEEK: ERYNGIUM x zabelii “Big Blue” looks fantastic and flowers until October. Get 20 per cent off at thompson-morgan. com/sunoffers. T&Cs apply. BEAT DRY PATCH: MANY plants can cope with long, dry periods. For evergreen structure, try Rosemary, Lavender “Hidcote”, and silver-leafed Artemisia “Powis Castle”. Hardy perennials like Salvia “Amistad”, Geranium “Rozanne”, and native Achillea (Yarrow) bloom all summer long. Succulents like Sedum “Atlantis” store moisture efficiently, while Verbena bonariensis adds height – and looks like an ultra-violet disco light. Comment now