How Much Do You Water?

Given the long periods with no rain in London this Summer, almost two months, I have had to resort to watering the garden. Bizarrely as I post this though it is chucking it down! Pot plants outdoors in the sun need a good dose of water daily, although you can probably get away with once every two days, to keep them sitting pretty. Plants in the garden on the other hand do not need watering this regularly. The trouble is how often do they need watering and how much? Any significant detail about this is hard to come by.

I was discussing this with a friend at work and he also finds the same problem. Visiting gardens or watching gardening programs on TV, where they visit lush English gardens, they never mention how much they have had to water in order to keep the plants looking so great and the garden green. Water is such a precious commodity, that although we know that we have to use it to keep a garden green, we are loathe to admit how much we actually use!

I have had to resort to watering the garden in order to keep it from dying but I have purchase a directional sprinkler such that I can control where the water ends up. I then move the sprinkler to several vantage points around the garden to ensure that it is only the garden that gets a watering and not the driveway and the front footpath! Seriously I have mapped the garden in order to get maximum coverage for my watering buck. As I am on a water metre, every drop counts!

I typically only water a particular garden area for 15 – 20 minutes but in all honesty I have no idea if this is enough. Given that the entire garden hasn’t expired on me yet I think it is. I also only water as an absolute last resort, apart from the afore mentioned pot plants which get a good dousing regularly. I am forever checking the weather (back to the weather fascination ;-) ) and using tank water for my water when available. We have two water tanks that have been empty for some time now, but thankfully are now close to full. Guaranteed to be full after the rain this morning!

Since taking over the garden I have been told a couple of watering rules:

• Only water established plants when they look distressed. This I mostly follow. I will target individual plants when they start to look a little poorly but inevitably I end up getting the sprinkler out to water an area as I then start to worry!
• For watering lawn you have to douse an area for at least an hour as this will let the water seep down the required 4 inches to give the grass string roots. Hmmm I would have trouble doing this and would consider planting a more drought resistant grass strain! Looking at the RHS web site as well, they say not to water your grass if at all possible. From The RHS website “Browning of the lawn is very common at this time of year. Don’t water the grass unless absolutely necessary. It will green up when the autumn rains arrive.” Think I will follow their advice!

Typically though Yahoo! Answers has the answer! This site is still fantastic for getting a response to a question as opposed to a bad response from a search engine. Basically trial and error, i.e. test the soil with your finger. If its damp then don’t water. If it’s dry then water. My addition to this would be if the soil is dry then check the weather! If it is due to rain in the next 24 hours then don’t water. If it doesn’t rain then water. Not sure if this is an approach that is encouraged in wider gardening circles but it does work for me!

Anyway for now I am following the Yahoo! Answers method for now, although I am not instantly watering on site of dry soil. One thing I should add, for my newly planted plants. I typically give these a soak once a day for the first week, and then slow down the process a little. I tend to pay closer attention to these plants in the wander around the garden each day. Luckily right now my water tanks are full to overflowing so I feel a little less guilty when watering!

Cheers

m