Kitchen Garden Forum

anyone have any suggestions for fruit or vegetables that have a high tolerance to dry soils? I'm guessing asparagus, globe artichoke, sweetcorn and the Meditteranean herbs. But any other thoughts would be very welcome. I'm sick of lugging watering cans around...

Onions don't seem to mind going without, neither does garlic or shallots. I never water my potatoes and they do very well. Once my French beans are growing well I often miss them out too. I do find sweetcorn does need watering. Best thing is to make sure your soil is topped up with compost etc so it holds on to water. My beds were made up of copious amounts of kitchen and garden waste and tons of leaf mould, courtesy of the council.

thanks a lot, very helpful. I've been looking on the web since and it seems carrots, rhubarb, beetroot, chard and something called New Zealand spinach are also quite good in dry conditions. Though we seem to be having a monsoon here in london at the moment so it all seems a bit irrelevant now!!

I was under the impression that sweetcorn need a lot of water?

I believe they need water until they get established and then when they start flowering and fruiting, but I might well be wrong

Seakale is a native and grows in very hostile conditions, so should do well in drought. Wondered if any of the very deep rooted veg e.g. mooli, scorzonera, burdock would also do well?

according to today's Gardener's Question Time on R4 a variety of strawberry called Maxim is more drought resistant than most.