It’s been a long hot summer but it’s not just people who have been feeling the heat. Across the country, our gardens have fried to a crisp, leaving lawns looking like the Sahara, plants scorched and drooping and trees, dropping both fruit and leaves just to survive.
But Royal Horticultural Society experts say it's not too late to salvage our beloved green spaces and future proof them for hotter years to come - as long as we work with nature.
With rain finally arriving over the last few days and forecast into next week, RHS Principal Horticultural Advisor Leigh Hunt explains: “This has been an exceptional year for heat. Records have been broken and new ones set.
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“It’s put our gardens under long term stress. There’s no doubt it’s been a challenging time for gardeners. My own lawn’s as as bad as everyone else’s. People might be tempted to say ‘I’ll just pave it over!’ But that’s not going to help.
