Drought guide
No rain, hot sun, a hosepipe ban. Here's the plan.
Two weeks without rain is unusual for Ireland. Your garden can take it, and so can you, with a bit of triage, some free water you're currently pouring down the drain, and a few tricks Nonna was using long before anyone said "water conservation order".
The hosepipe ban, in plain words
Uisce Éireann has a Water Conservation Order in force from 16 July to 26 August 2026 covering Dublin, south Tipperary and parts of Kildare, Meath, Wexford and Wicklow, with night-time restrictions on dozens of other supplies around the country. In the ban areas you cannot use a hosepipe to water the garden, wash the car, or fill a paddling pool.
The good news for gardeners: a watering can or bucket is allowed. You can absolutely keep your veg alive. You just do it the old way, and this page makes every canful count.
Bans can be extended or lifted early. Check water.ie for the latest on your own area.
Make every can count
Water early, or late
Before 9am or after 7pm. In the midday sun half your water evaporates before the roots ever see it. Morning is best: the plant drinks all day and the leaves dry off, which also keeps mildew away.
Water the soil, not the plant
Aim the can at the base of the stem, slowly, and let it soak in. Wet leaves waste water and invite scorch and disease. A gentle slow pour beats a fast splash that runs off the surface.
Deep and rare beats little and often
A proper soak twice a week sends roots down looking for moisture. A daily sprinkle keeps roots at the surface, where they cook. Exception: pots and seedlings, which need checking daily.
Triage like a nurse
With limited water, rank your patients. First: anything in pots, and seedlings. Second: fruiting crops mid-fruit (tomatoes, courgettes, beans). Last: established roots like mature kale and chard, which will sulk but survive. Don't water the lawn at all. It goes brown, then it comes back. It always comes back.
Stop feeding, stop pruning
Fertiliser pushes soft thirsty growth the plant can't support in a drought. Hold the feed until the rain returns, and don't hard-prune anything now: open wounds and fresh regrowth both cost the plant water.
Free water you already have
An Irish household pours away 10-15 litres a day that a garden would love. During a ban, this is your reservoir.
A basin in the sink
Rinse your veg and salad over a basin instead of down the drain. That's 2-3 litres a day of perfectly good water. Same for the water you rinse rice or soak beans in.
Cooking water
Water from boiling potatoes, pasta or veg is fine for the garden once it has cooled completely. One rule: no salt. If you salted the pot, it goes down the drain, not on your beds.
The shower warm-up bucket
The cold water you run off waiting for the shower to warm up is clean drinking water. A bucket in the shower catches 3-5 litres a day. That's a full watering can, free.
Grey water, with care
Washing-up water with mild soap is fine for ornamentals, fruit trees and shrubs. Use it the same day, pour it on the soil not the leaves, and keep it off anything you eat raw like lettuce. No bleach, no dishwasher water.
Get a water butt before the rain returns
The best day to install a water butt was before this drought. The second best day is now: one good August downpour off a shed roof fills 200 litres. Even a lidded bin under a downpipe works.
Nonna's tricks
Italian gardens have dealt with dry summers for centuries, without a hose in sight. These are the tricks that came with our seeds.
The buried bottle
Take a 2-litre plastic bottle, pierce 3-4 small holes in the cap, cut the bottom off, and bury it cap-down next to a thirsty plant like a tomato or courgette. Fill it in the evening. It drips straight to the roots for hours, with zero evaporation. This is drip irrigation for the price of nothing.
The terracotta pot (olla)
Nonna's version is older than the Romans: bury an unglazed terracotta pot up to its neck between plants, plug the bottom hole, fill it with water and cover the top with a saucer. The clay sweats moisture into the soil exactly as fast as the plants drink it. One pot waters a square metre for days.
Mulch with what you have
Bare soil in sun loses water by the hour. Cover every bit of bare ground around your plants: dried grass clippings, straw, shredded newspaper, even flat cardboard weighed down. A 5cm mulch can halve how often you need to water.
"Una zappatura vale due annaffiature"
One hoeing is worth two waterings, as they say in the Italian orto. Lightly hoeing the top 2-3cm of soil breaks the fine channels that wick moisture up to the surface, sealing the water in below. Do it the morning after you water, and after any rain.
Saucers, shade and huddles
Put saucers under every pot so nothing drains away. Move pots into afternoon shade and group them together: they shade each other and dry out slower. For beds, an old white bedsheet on canes over your salads through the hottest hours works like a charm.
The washing-up bowl trick for bone-dry pots
Compost that has dried right out repels water. It runs straight through and out the bottom. Don't keep pouring: sit the whole pot in a basin of water for half an hour and let it drink from below until the surface darkens.
Sow for the weather we're having
Our varieties come from Italy, where a dry July is just called July. These handle heat better than most, and all of them can still go in the ground this month.
- Chard (Bietola) — Deep roots, shrugs off dry spells, and July is prime sowing time.
- Rocket (Rucola) — Fast, tough, and happier in heat than lettuce. Sow now, eat in 4 weeks.
- Chicory & Radicchio — The classic Italian dry-summer leaves. Sow July-August for autumn.
- Beetroot — Once established it finds its own water. Last sowings this month.
- Kale (Cavolo Nero) — Water it in well once, mulch it, and it powers through to winter.
- Mediterranean herbs — Rosemary, oregano, sage and thyme genuinely prefer it dry.
Plants already struggling in the heat? Run them through the diagnosis tool or check what else needs doing this week.
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