Watering

Joined
Jan 31, 2018
Messages
3,336
Reaction score
3,721
Location
The Tropic of Trafford
Hardiness Zone
Keir Hardy
Country
United Kingdom
Here in the North-West, there were never any restrictions on watering during the dry spell. No threat of a hosepipe ban.
The problem with water, there's no infrastructure to move it in volume from one area to another in this country.
The houses in our road are built on what was farmland until the mid-sixties. It's free draining and has some sand content, being on the former flood plain of the river Mersey. It can rain as hard as it likes, we never get pools on either the lawn or in the borders, not even water in the little drainage channel between the lawn and the beds. We've a lot of shallow rooted plants like azaleas and rhodos, some fine leaved acers and a sambucas that are liable to get scorched leaves in hot sun, plus five wisterias that are very thirsty and a couple of dozen roses in ceramic pots on patios that dry out quickly in hot weather. The tall acer tree in the front garden needs it too.
So throughout the hot spell, I made sure everything got plenty of water, even the lawn. I know, "yellow" lawns will recover, but I find them unattractive. So the two lawn sprinklers were on for a few minutes every day, likewise the borders leaky hose system now and again., but mostly I used the hose to keep the the soil and the foliage damp and the fine leaved plants got a mist spray at lunch time if I was home. The patio pots got an evening water every day.

We didn't lose any plants.

Well, the accounting for this care and attention, has just arrived in the form of the twice yearly water bill. I'll be paying an extra pound a week for the next six months. That amount of money wouldn't replace one plant of a reasonable size if any had died for lack of water..

My next door neighbour lost a large tree and a few plants by not watering sufficiently.
 
Joined
Feb 13, 2021
Messages
3,413
Reaction score
2,115
Country
United Kingdom
I can understand that when you are growing for appearances, growing veg is a different matter. For a start off there is a straight financial reckoning, why put a quids worth of water on a plant to try and get something I can buy in the greengrocer's for 75p? Then most veg are annuals, no point saving them like your lovely azaleas. Also I find that on the whole vegetables that get no rain and are watered don't produce in the same way. I had a fair bit of stored rainwater, most of it went on the greenhouses, but I had some over and watered the runners as it is the missus favourite veg. Didn't get a thing out of them except short, stumpy, stringy things that made beans before they grew, first rain came and we had beans almost instantly
 

Ask a Question

Want to reply to this thread or ask your own question?

You'll need to choose a username for the site, which only take a couple of moments. After that, you can post your question and our members will help you out.

Ask a Question

Members online

Forum statistics

Threads
26,589
Messages
256,650
Members
13,263
Latest member
ProNailComplex

Latest Threads

Top