O, so green and serene. Lovely, Woody, even in this terrible year. I imagine you have worked very hard indeed, to keep it looking so lush.

I am trying to compile a list of drought-resistant plants as I hope to reassess a large portion of my allotments this year. I don't love those tall yellow achilleas but nonetheless, I think they are destined to become an important structural focus for what I hope will be a sort of hybrid prairie/meadow garden, with a bunch of tall, resilient perennials such as perovskia, senecio, verbena 'Bampton' and some interesting centaureas. Centaurea scabiosa in particular, has a new flush of good basal foliage, along with long-lasting seedheads.

I have already mentioned sphaeralcea. I grew a lovely pink one, years ago, but they had dropped off my radar until I picked up a s.ambigua (I think) with soft orange flowers. I am going to see if abutilons manage to survive outside. along with another plant I had, then lost, but am going to try to get again - anisodontea El Royo. While I have no room whatsoever for a wisteria (not even a standard), I do have an indigofera, (ambleyantha) which has bloomed continually, from April onwards - still going strong now.

Centranthus is a survivor but not a plant I like overmuch...but I am keen to try centranthus lecoquii - a pale pink, valerian look-alike. I have also come across flourishing mirabilis (neighbour's house). n a few, if I can find seed in single colours (and not that horrid stripe-y pink and yellow mix) might be a do-er, along with other plants which have a lot of storage in a root system (so platycodon, verbascum, mallows). Penstemon have been a bit iffy, with the small barbatus doing OK while mexicali hybrids, along with grandiflora just fried and shrivelled. I do have a really good figwort - phygelius. Often, these Cape natives come in some murky, washed out colours. A pale yellow, dismal coral or dingy red...but I took a cutting of one with vibrant orange trumpet flowers, with sunshine yellow interiors. Good in my garden, but remains to be seen at the allotment,

Trials and experiments:

It has taken me years, and several mishaps to grow muhlenbergia capillaris, but finally, I will be releasing my small pot, into the wild.long with some cheery, seed-grown dahlias 'Bishop's Children' range) and a species d.coccinea.

I have no idea how alstroemeria will do under drought conditions - mine are in my irrigated home garden (where they are stellar). I am also hoping to try various bupleurums, eryngiums and grasses.

And finally bulbs. I am going to trial a few geophytes. I blame David totally, for reminding me about the rare plants website. Have ordered some lovely, but costly acis, tecophilaea (techophilaea!, previously only seen on at my local botanical gardens) This is a 'cheer myself up' plant after a dismal August.. and a tropolaeum. Which will, I hope, disguise a shipping container on the western side of my wood. I had to be very strict with myself. (and failed). My garden budget, which consists of £2 coins which I keep in a London black cab teapot (I know!) has been sorely depleted. Just about enough to pay my allotment rent

Grief, apologies for rambling on...and on.

rosaprimula - actually actually, other than the lawn which was re-sodded this spring to repair the damage caused by the removal of the ash tree, we didn’t do much work at all in the backyard. All those ’lush’ plants survived on natural rainfall - which was almost 6” below our average for the garden, with April and July being particularly dry months! So that really surprised me and made me want to know which plants survived surprisingly well for other people. The front garden also looks quite lush - but has more weeds that need removal…. I’m waiting for cooler weather before tackling the front garden as it is in full sun and I’m useless working in hot and humid conditions :-) The Chinese wisteria ’tree’ in the front garden has been quite prolific this year in producing secondary summer blooms. The Japanese wisteria ’tree’ produces lots of new whippy growth but never any summer bloom. I regret planting that one - I should have tried one of the American types instead - as long as it was one that didn’t smell too bad :-).

I’m not familiar with some of the plants you named so I’ll need to look those ones up. I suspect they are likely not to be hardy here. :-)

I’ve always been curious about the UK allotment gardens… How big is the individual garden space and what does it cost?

Allotments are measured in the antiquated rod (or pole). A rod is a measurement of length and area. 5.5 yards squared. So my allotment, 10 poles (or rods) is 55yards long, by 5.5 yards wide. Long and thin, but I have 2 which are side by side, so 55 x 11 yards. The rent is £120 per year. Quite a lot of plots are quite a bit smaller. Fruit and vegetable growing is the most popular use, but there is a tradition of exhibition growing, giant gooseberries, leeks, while some people grow and breed certain species - sweetpeas, dahlias, tulips. Then there are hobbyists who might grow plants for dyes (I have done this) herb enthusiasts, heirloom plants. I think there are a few formally documented National Collections of particular species (such as alliums, kniphofia, iris, on people's allotments. There used to be over a million but are now around 300,000 in the UK.

I have had allotments for 40 or so years, on 3 different sites. I have been on this site since 2002. My home garden is tiny (and full up) . I love my plot beyond reckoning.

I do struggle to remember the vast climatic range across Canada and the US. My home garden is not too dissimilar to Gardengal's place - around Z8, although I have a tiny walled garden so more like Z9. I can (and do) grow quite a lot of tender plants - aloysia, iochroma, agapanthus, salvias, pelargoniums and such.

Thanks for the infoon the allotments. That’s a lot of space! I’d love to see pictures of it…

When I looked up the unfamiliar plants you mentioned, most are not hardy here so that certainly explains why I didn’t know much about some of them… We’re zone 5 here but are close to Lake Ontario which means winters are a bit mildder than inland because the Lake rarely freezes but ’cooler by the Lake’ means spring can be quite cool as the Lake takes a long time to warm up. Fall, however however, can be warmer than inland as the Lake also takes longer to cool down. I got a good sense of the climate difference to the UK many years ago when I was reading something that talked about plowing a field in February! The ground is thoroughly frozen here in February and often also deeply covered in snow. I’m hoping we get lots of snow this winter so snowmelt inspring adds moisture tothe soil.