Wool is your garden's heatwave hero – here's how to use it for moisture retention and heat management

These heatwaves are certainly taking their toll on our plants and lawns. Even when you're keeping up with watering, they still seem to be wilting away. Luckily, one of our favourite garden influencers has shared his hot weather essential for keeping plants hydrated and happy.

If you've been out in the garden this month, ticking off your July essential jobs, you'll probably have noticed just how harsh the weather is being on your poor plants. And while it's helpful to know the best time of day to water your garden as well as what to do to prepare your plants for a heatwave, sometimes the temperatures just get the best of us.

However, garden design expert and influencer Ish (@gardening.with.ish on Instagram) has discovered a rather nifty way to help your plants retain moisture as well as keep pests and sun rays at bay. It's a heatwave miracle!

You might feel like you've only just helped your garden recover from the last heatwave, but with no signs of the hot weather letting up, you'll probably need further help keeping your plants happy.

"I have made an accidental gardening discovery which will actually help save your potted plants from drying out," starts Ish.

"Now, if you've never heard of them before, I got myself some wool pellets, and this was actually for something completely different. It was to protect my plants from slugs," he adds.

"Because if you don't know what wool pellets are, effectively they are just wool that's been crushed up into pellets, and because it soaks in moisture so easily, when a slug goes on top of it, it soaks that moisture from the slug; it doesn't like it as a result and stays away from it," continues Ish.

Aside from stopping your garden from filling with slugs, these wool pellets can be made into a heatwave saviour for your potted plants and hanging baskets.

"But add it to a tub of water or some really wet compost, and all of a sudden it makes this fantastic little slurry, which is soaking in the moisture really, really well," explains Ish.

"So I've been mixing this in with my multi-purpose compost or peat-free compost, which is not very good at retaining moisture anyway, and putting this in my potted plants," he shares.

"And as a result, it's been holding onto that moisture just a little bit longer, meaning that I don't have to worry about my plants drying out so quickly," Ish adds.

Also a great thing to do if you're worried about taking care of your garden whilst you're on holiday this summer.

Similar to your garden tool essentials, wool pellets are helpful for various reasons and ideal to have on hand year-round.

"Now it's not just good for that. Obviously, it's good for keeping slugs out, and if you place it on top, it also works as a really good mulch layer. So any sun rays coming on a heatwave are reflected off of this too, which means soil is drying out more slowly as well. So, all around a really good," Ish says.

"And a double bonus is that sheep's wool is naturally full of nitrogen, meaning when this breaks down, it's also a slow-release food," he finishes.

You can also use coffee grounds in your garden to add nitrogen to the compost; however, wool does have way more benefits for your plants to enjoy.

Wool is also a great way to protect your plants from frost when the winter months come around; it provides a blanket-like cover to keep your hardy perennials safe.