The garden can only be kept reasonably green with bathtubs full of water.

Extreme heat and desert wind suck the water out of the ground, you can almost watch it.

Rain is hardly in sight, here a shower, maybe a thunderstorm.

No rain is likely to fall in the next few days.

Should I water all summer now?

Or, as a precaution, let some wither before the water rationing comes?

Andrew Frey

Freelance author in the science section of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sunday newspaper.

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German gardens should gradually adapt to this uncomfortable scenario.

In northern Italy and Ticino it is now so dry that people have already been instructed to limit themselves.

This includes, for example, no longer filling the pool or watering the garden.

In some communities, the water is even turned off completely at night.

Germans are not world champions when it comes to saving water, but that could change this summer.

In this respect, it would be better to let the lawn dry up now and finally say goodbye to the drunks in the garden.

The hydrangeas have no future anyway, so get rid of them.

Delphiniums are really pretty to look at, but style isn't enough of an argument in the fight against water shortages and climate change.

So the same applies here: Out with it!

And about swimming pools in gardens: they were always decadent and superfluous, given the countless outdoor pools and bathing lakes in Germany.

In this respect, any construction plans should be discarded and existing pools converted into ponds.

Why the summer of 2022 will be particularly hot

Several factors indicate that the summer could still be really problematic.

First: its history.

The soils are already as dry as usually only in August.

It would take weeks of continuous rain to compensate for this deficit.

This is not to be expected.

Second: The dormouse rule states that June 27th is a day off in meteorology.

"The weather on Dormouse Day may stay for another seven weeks," says the old farmer's rule.

In fact, not one day is decisive, but the period from the end of June to the beginning of July.

Just as the current levels off in the transition from early summer to midsummer, it often remains until mid-August.

The weather models are currently pointing to another heat wave at the turn of the month, and one model even predicts the development of an omega layer, which is particularly stable.

And third: the long-term forecasts.

Although these are associated with considerable uncertainties, this year the signal for a summer that is too hot and too dry is extremely strong.

It is likely to be one to two degrees warmer than the average, and it will probably only rarely rain.

Conclusion: There are many indications that summer is still really turning up.

So you have to sacrifice the lawn for drought?

I confess that this decision is difficult for me.

The little ones love to play in the grid this year, the baby crawls over the lush grass, I only laid out the new lawn in the spring.

The variety I chose is extremely hardy, but I don't think the underground roots will survive the drought either.

Then the only thing left is scarifying and overseeding in the fall, if the situation changes by then.

This describes the real problem in detail.

Anyone who still hopes in 2022 that the next month, next summer or next year will finally be like it used to be, hopes in vain.

A thirsty garden is the new normal, and water is an increasingly scarce commodity.

And water rationing might be the new rule tomorrow.