With the third heatwave in as many months, homeowners around the country are wrestling with the question of whether they need to shape their lifestyles, homes and landscapes around the extremely hot weather.
Whilst the temperature of aheatwave may remain the same, the difference between it being balmier than usual or an outright threat to your health is often related to where you happen to be during the hottest parts of the day.
When the air temperature is in the high 20s or early 30s, the surface temperature can often be higher than this. Whilst this effect ismost commonly found in cities, it can affect a lot of homeowners across the country depending on how paved over their gardens are.
What causes it? What makes it worse? And what can you do about it?
Why Are Some Gardens Hotter Than Others?
The reason why certain parts of the country are hotter than others despite being at the same ambient air temperature is due to a phenomenon known as theurban heat island effect.
Artificial surfaces such as concrete and asphalt absorb a lot of heat, which not only makes them extremely hot to the touch and increases the ambient temperatures near them, but also causes heat to dissipate far more slowly than it would in a more rural or natural environment.
The cause of manytropical nights (nighttime temperatures hotter than 20 degrees Celsius) is a direct consequence of the urban heat island, as the scorching daytime heat absorbed by tarmac, concrete and other landscaping materials is released into the atmosphere.
How Can You Keep Your Garden And Landscape Cooler?
Whilst the overall climate effects of the urban heat island need to be managed on a neighbourhood, town, or country-wide scale, there are both large and small steps you can take to help keep your home and surrounding area cooler.
Plant Trees
Adding extra shade to your garden will naturally help to reduce the heat surrounding it, and planting trees in key areas around your garden will help to absorb a lot of the solar heat and cool the area around your garden.
What helps here is that trees will not only shade your grass, plants and vegetation but also parts of your patio and driveway depending on where you plant them, so it can be particularly helpful in preserving the longevity of your driveway.
Rewild Your Garden
Over the past few years, the appeal ofrewilding gardens has grown, and not just because it saves people the stress of mowing and watering a lawn every few weeks. However, it can also help keep your garden cooler.
Allowing grass to grow taller and wildflowers to naturally bloom provides extra shade for your soil, which allows it to retain moisture more easily and stops the baked earth effect that can often make a heat island feel even worse.
It also saves you water, time and money in the long run.
Green Roofs
Finally, a more ambitious plan is to integrate grass, plants and vegetation onto your roof.
Green roofs have also become increasingly popular as a way to add dimension and verticality to landscapes, but they can also help to reduce the absorption of heat, which contributes to an urban heat island.