The water level on the pits was reasonable high, but covered in duckweed. Common Blue butterflies and a Fritillary seen.

Snakeholme Pit, Lincolnshire

https://butterfly-conservation.org/our-work/reserves/snakeholme-pit-lincolnshire 

June saw 60% of normal rain

July is at 10% so far (23rd)

The original idea of leaving it un-mowed was to encourage some wildflowers for pollinators, but most of the wildflowers seem to have given up the ghost and it was beginning to look like the Serengeti in a drought season. We could sense the neighbours tut-tutting.

Surprisingly under all the completely dead and brown top growth there is actually some green - in fact it now looks greener than our back "lawn" which we have mowed occasionally.

Perhaps I should have left it as is, as this green undergrowth will no doubt now be destroyed by the next heat wave.

Getting to grips with the "new gardening" is interesting.

They will have deeper roots than lawn grass so should weather the drought much better. You're correct with your instinct too, the taller brown stuff would have cast dappled shade onto the herbaceous stuff below. 

I drive past a bank along a new build estate that was turfed a couple of years ago. Its striking because the grass is brown and dotted throughout are green dandelion crowns. Its a telling contrast. 

River - present level - lowest previously recorded (both in metres depth)

Clwyd - 0.285 - 0.33 (near Denbigh)

Severn - 1.01 - 0.97 (Upper Severn at Newtown)

Dee - 0.53 - 0.40 (Corwen near Bala; maybe some buffering from Lake Bala)

Lledr - 0.124 - 0.12 (Betws-y-Coed)

Teme - 0.879 - 0.83 (Ludlow)

Dysinni - 0.17 - 0.18 (W coast of Wales, N of Machynlleth)

Bollin - 0.217 - 0,2 (Manchester Airport)

But anyone looking at the map in 

 https://www.gaugemap.co.uk/ 

could probably find examples in their area

I'm a firm believer in "scalp it = burn it" at this time of year. The council have continued strimming the grass verge outside my house and it's just short bits of straw now. Hard as concrete and even the weeds haven't regrown. 

Meanwhile in the garden - which hasn't seen a mower this month - the grass is still just about green, aside from a circular area which always goes yellow quickly (and having experimented by poking canes into the soil when it's been damp, there's nothing like a drain cover underneath it). The bare patches are from winter when my puppy churned up the lawn, I'd hoped the grass would have spread back but it hasn't. 

The trees are mostly okay, but the hazel is showing signs of stress, it always seems to be the first affected. 

My neighbour to the right is always tutting about my garden, but hey-ho. I'd rather have a proper garden that's buzzing with birds, insects and a bat than their sterile patch of dead grass! 

https://ukwct.org.uk/weather/garden.jpg 

It’s been interesting seeing the various gradations of visible drought this year, in three different places. 

SE London got a bit brown on the classic early responders like Blackheath back in late May, but then greened up. In the June heatwave (I was away so I got this second hand) I understand lawns started going yellow but there was plenty of green still. The Kent downs where my vineyard is remained green, except in horse paddocks and short lawns. 

Mid July London has gone proper yellow and weeds and long grass are starting to turn. The Kent downs are now brown lawns, and browning long grass. But still a decent amount of green on longer verges. 

I’m now in our house in South Burgundy. The drought here is extreme, as has been the heat (though this week is pleasant, high 20s and cool at night). All gardens, pasture and long grass are brown, and several have gone to the next stage of near-white. Birches are losing leaves, some lone conifers are dead, and hillsides look autumnal. Unless it rains pretty soon I suspect whole stands of fir will start dying back. 

Hmm, that's interesting - I've seen grass turn to straw, but I've never seen a stage beyond that. White, you say? I guess that's dessication taking hold... Perhaps something that'll happen here, if we end up with more of these desert-like hot spells. The more typical muggy/stuffy/sweaty spells we see don't seem to progress things that far. 

Conifers I'm led to believe only have shallow roots (compared with deciduous trees), so it'd make sense that they would suffer earlier than others in a drought situation. I guess hazel is similar in terms of its root system - the other ones that seem to suffer more are cherry trees. 

Yes, never seen white but maybe similar to when I flew in with my now wife to Melbourne for the first time, 20 years ago.

We both commented that the land (and I mean all of it) was not brown but grey, it was that parched. Sadly that was a few months before the Black Saturday fires cut through hundreds of thousands of acres of land in Victoria and killed over 170 people. Hopefully we never reach anything like that here, as long as we have potable water then no worries...according to some.

So far, there are no areas which are currently at significant water scarcity status which is the highest level which you can get to, but there is a very strong warning in this report that unless the situation improves in the next week with some much needed rainfall, there are a number of areas which are likely to have their status upgraded to significant water scarcity level.

In the meantime, Edinburgh along with one other area has now had its status upgraded from alert status to moderate water scarcity status, and there are also a number of other areas which are also at moderate water scarcity status including down here in the Borders.

In addition to that, all but one area in SW Scotland along with parts of Tayside have had their status upgraded to alert status from early warning status.

Finally, there are also a number of areas including the Outer Hebrides which have had their status upgraded from normal status to early warning status, so there's not all that many areas left which are still at normal status.

Rainfall has still been normal in many western areas, but it's been very dry elsewhere especially in the east.

River levels are still fairly high in the west but low to very low in the east whereas groundwater levels are also low to very low in the east, and particularly low in central Fife.

Yup it’s almost white here Darren  it’s caused after the drying process after which it is bleached by the strong sun and high UV levels especially in south facing aspects.

its not dead  it doesn’t come out on the tug test if I put the mower on the lowest setting for a quick area test it is quite green where the roots meet the crown so hopefully it will recover when the rains come I note also some of the bents have seed hopefully that will aid recovery later on.

The most exposed parts of our rear "lawn" have certainly progressed to the white stage. The only plant in our garden at present which appears to be actively growing is bindweed (Convolvulus) and I read that its roots go down three to six meters.

Quite likely - I remember my father trying futilely to dig it out of his allotment and giving up after he'd dug a trial pit about 1m. deep

An interesting plant all the same, even though it is a pernicious species when in the wrong place. I came across a field of it mixed with sea carrot and fleabane, which made a great combination. All of which seem drought-resistant this year.

From Wiki:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convolvulus_arvensis 

Bindweed contains several alkaloids which are toxic for mice, including pseudotropine, and lesser amounts of tropine, tropinone, and meso-cuscohygrine.[22] The alkaloids are also reported to give the plant psychoactive properties. Its leaves contain glycosides and have been traditionally used to treat hypertension and as a laxative and diuretic.[23]

Where do you live? Or should I say on which planet? You are talking rubbish basically because you are providing no evidence to back up your views. We have had zero rainfall here for a month now. Some rain at the start of June but three months of drought before that. Significant rain (but not record breaking here) in January and February after an average Autumn and pre Christmas winter. This followed a very dry Spring and Summer. This "temperate" island is no longer such. Continuous record breaking heat. Plants and trees are dying. Insect numbers have plummeted and birds are struggling and have had another poor breeding season. Deep cracks in the ground and wildfires abound. So far it is mainly the South that is affected drastically but the North is starting to feel it and will more so in the years ahead. This is evidence of climate change not a bit of hot weather.

Yes, most of our main lawn is now white. The only parts still greenish are in the shade of our trees. Our large weeping willow at the rear of the barn has been shedding leaves since June and the one by the road is now going the same thing.  There’s a young oak tree in the field that’s so far looking okay.

Our pond is now lower than at any time since we moved here; about 2-3 feet down.

That describes my part of S.Essex except my 50 year old SIlver Birch is effectively dead with every one of the few remaining green leaves brown. Whether it will recover next Spring I don't know. The first two weeks of June provided a little bit of water for shallow rooted plants but now, with zero rainfall for a month and none on the horizon everything is suffering and temperatures back up to 29-30C, even the drought resistant ones like Eryngium haven't done as well as normal.

Below is the mown grass.

And now the uncut grass..

And side by side 

All taken today.. around 3.5 weeks since last rain.

It would seem even in dry weather nature can manage better if left to be. This uncut grass is teaming with grasshoppers and other creatures. The field sounds alive around these patches which is so refreshing to the normal stale grassy areas within the city.🙂

Absolutely, the ground temperature of mown grass is much higher than where it is left uncut. There's so much unnecessary mowing happening which is not only bad for nature but also increases the heat island effect. It's also a waste of time and money. People will of course complain that it looks untidy...

It’s dry again this summer.

The ‘Green’ by the front gate is anything but. Notable are the clumps of Yarrow that can spread but are certainly resistant to droughts like this. 

If you are looking for a drought-resistant plant this Mexican Fleabane Erigeron karvinskianus might suit you. 

I’m not by the seaside but my neighbours have this Seaside Daisy Erigeron glaucus on the edge of their front garden. Drought resistant? Yes.

In the back garden this Sea Holly Eryngium planum is awash with insects at times. 

Wild Marjoram Origanum vulgare is an insect favourite too. It grows wild on the nearby chalk downlands but is a much lower-to-the-ground plant in these places.

Don’t tell Beast but there are perhaps half a dozen or more Painted Ladies flying around today.

And I’ve never seen so many Hummingbird Hawk Moths as this year. 

This recent fledgling gets through a lot of drinking water. Very tame too. Spot the fly just above the beak. I water this small area of grass because of the food sources underground. It also acts as a kind of air conditioner in hot weather. As do the other greenery and trees.

END

Think you are a bit out of touch .Read this to catch up.

https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/about-us/news-and-media/media-centre/weather-and-climate-news/2026/climate-extremes-are-becoming-the-new-normal-for-the-uk 

The only thing that's thriving is the maize in the distance... tall, straight and deep green in colour. Goodness knows how it's doing so well, considering there's no irrigation, but there you go. At least the cows will have their fodder later this year! (I asked my neighbour about it, as it's on the large farm where he works - they said that large fields of it are used for cattle fodder, small areas are used for shooting).

https://www.theweatheroutlook.com/userpics/20260724/20260724175106.jpg 

Maize once established is pretty drought tolerant as the cover protects the soil and the shape of the plant catches any moisture from rain or heavy dew. Another thing is that when farmers sow maize the normally plough in a large amount of FYM which helps the soil hold moisture as well as providing nutrients.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckg68j3zkdgo 

Yes only normally used as a last resort due to corrosive action on appliances and sterilisation of the soil. If it was not threatening houses ,it would be better to burn firebreaks and let it burn up to them.