Plants which thrive in drought-struck lawns

How unfair is this?

It's August of 2022, we've had the driest spring in years, we've had the absolutely driest July since records began, we've had not one, but two heatwaves, with temperatures way up in the 30s (for the UK, that is seriously high, we're not used to it), most people's lawns look like the Serengeti before the rains come...

....and yet, there are a few flowers which are thriving.

This one - left - is not Cow Parsley (*laughs*).

(I'm laughing because non-gardeners think that everything with a white flat-topped flower is Cow Parsley, which is not the case.)

 No, it's Yarrow - proper name Achillea millefolium - which is a pestilential weed of lawns, because it's immune to the only weedkilllers you can use on lawn (Verdone being the one which springs to mind) which means that, once it gets into your lawn, it's pretty much impossible to get rid of it. 

And it will spread out, kill the grass, and take over the lawn.

The only good thing you can say about Yarrow is that at least it's green... and it's pretty much immune to drought - as well as Verdone - because it has enormously long taproots, which can find sub-surface water, when all above is parched and brown.

In fact, there is a school of thought which says that Yarrow should be encouraged in lawns, because the super-long taproots break up a hard clay or chalky soil, reducing compaction, and bringing nutrients to the surface.  

I'm not convinced: if I had a lawn, I would want it to be proper grass. Or, I would give up on grass and go entirely for Yarrow, mowing it once a month to remove the flowers, and allowing just the lush green foliage. It would be a bit lumpy underfoot, compared to proper grass, but at least it would stay green in a drought!

Another drought-tolerant weed flower is the dreaded Ox-Eye Daisy - proper name Leucanthemum vulgare -  which you can see, right, is also green and flourishing, in another Serengeti-like lawn.

In this case, the owner had planted a clump of the stuff in a nearby border, and hadn't noticed how it had seeded itself all over the lawn... until the grass died back, revealing lush green patches.

Before someone says "what do you have against Ox Eye Daisy, it's lovely!" I will tell you that I hate the stuff: the foliage is coarse, the flowers are short-lived and inelegant, it's a dreadful thug and spreads all over the place, including the lawn (exhibit B, m'lud) and it's only in flower for five minutes, doesn't usually re-flower, even if painstakingly dead-headed, and then you are left with an ugly clump of dead stems and coarse foliage. I rest my case.

And, for both this and the Yarrow, because no-one is cutting their "dead" grass, these infiltrators are able to grow and flourish, instead of having their heads cut off once a week.

So where's the silver lining? 

Well, at least you can now see the darned things! So get out there with the daisy grubber, and dig out the Ox-Eye Daisy individually: and as for the Yarrow, now is the time to get the glyphosate spray out, and very carefully spritz just the Yarrow. There is little danger of harming the lawn, because it's mostly dead on top at the moment, but don't spray with gay abandon, target just the Yarrow.

Then, in a few weeks' times, when the rains arrive - which they will, this is the UK - the lawns will quickly green up again, and you will have cleared out these perennial weeds!

 

 

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