Watering, Watering, Everywhere!
Don’t get me wrong, I love watering, but it gets very time consuming and hard work if you have as many pots and baskets as I do. That’s why I’ve worked out how to water plants more efficiently and effectively, so I can spend more time enjoying my garden. The secret is to apply the water in the right way, at the right time and concentrating your efforts on the most needy (see ‘How to water plants wisely’). Easy to say, but what does this mean in practice?
How to make watering easy
- Concentrate on plants that need it most
- Apply the water to the rooting zone
- Water during the evening to reduce water loss though evaporation
- Take steps to reduce water wastage
- Automate watering where possible
With a handful of plants and a piece of decorative trellis it is quite possible to make any eyesore disappear. But this has to be carried out with care or you risk replacing one eyesore with another. Furthermore, simply blocking the line of sight can actually highlight the fact that the ugly feature is there. The solution is a two-pronged attack. First camouflage the offending feature, then draw the attention away from it by creating a more dominant display in another part of the garden.
Cans, pipes and lances You can improve the efficiency of your watering by investing in a bit of kit. Watering by hand using a watering can takes a lot longer and is a great deal more work the further you have to travel carrying a full can. Having to reach across beds and up to baskets is also a strain. You can improve the reach of a watering can by buying one with a long spout, while a hosepipe can be extended with a special lance clipped on the end. These are particularly useful for watering baskets at head height or above. Hosepipes are the easy answer to transporting water around the garden – even if you want to water using a watering can. By having a water butt at the end of your plot that’s topped up by a hose, you simply have to dip the watering can in to fill it without having to lug a full can up and down the garden.
Watering the greenhouse Plants in the greenhouse take the most time to water, but you can automate the process as much as possible. For small pots and seedtrays on the staging, use capillary matting. The plants can then draw up as much water as they need via capillary action from the water-soaked mat they are standing on. Bear in mind that tall pots will remain dry at the top, so you may have to give these extra water by hand occasionally. If you are setting up a capillary system from scratch, make sure the staging surface is level then cover it with heavy-duty polythene before laying down the matting. Make sure the pots and trays do not have deep ridges on the base or crocks in the compost that would inhibit the capillary action. Then water all plants from the top the first time they are placed on the matting to get the capillary process going. Thereafter, you just need to keep the mat wet, either by periodic soaking by hand or by draping one end of the matting into a reservoir, such as a plastic trough fixed to the end of the bench, that’s kept topped-up with water. You can make larger pots and growing bags easier to water by adding a reservoir that gradually drips water into the compost over time. A cheap and easy way of achieving this is to make one out of an empty plastic drinks bottle with the bottom removed. Make a small hole in the screw-top, so that a wood screw can be inserted loosely. Once this make-shift reservoir is inverted and filled with water the screw can be adjusted to allow a continuous series of drips of water to be released. Push the reservoir into the top of the compost and top-up with water as necessary. If that all sounds too complicated, there are ready-made kits available that do a similar job.
Watering the kitchen garden Watering is essential to get the best crops, but you can reduce the amount of watering required by making sure the water goes where it is needed. Water the soil around each crop, leaving the soil dry in-between. This will cut down on waste and help prevent weed seeds germinating. Make circular ridges of soil around widely spaced plants to keep any water applied close to the plant until it soaks in. Rows of vegetables can be made easier to water by making a shallow irrigation ditch alongside the row - topping it up each time you water. You can water your whole plot like this if it is on a slight gradient by joining up the ditches and introducing the water at the highest point. If you find straight ditches collapse or silt up, you could line them with an old piece of guttering (with ends attached) that’s been drilled at regular intervals to let the water soak into the soil along the row. A much simpler solution, though, is to lay a permeable leaky hose, sometime called seephose or soakerhose, along the row to apply the water slowly and evenly. Then just attach a garden hose to the end each time you want to water.
On the patio If you find watering container plants too much of a strain, consider plumbing them into a trickle irrigation system. Kits are now available with adjustable dripper nozzles at the end of micro-tubing that can be placed into individual pots and regulated to give each plant exactly the right amount of water. To avoid unnecessary frustrations when setting up, lay out the system and pots in situ with the nozzles positioned before fixing the network of pipes. In cold weather, you can make assembly easier by heating the ends of pipes in warm water before pushing in the connectors. Once set up, run water through the system before plugging in the dripper nozzles and micro-jets to flush out most of the air and any dirt caught in the pipes. Finally, adjust the flow of water to suit each individual container, checking periodically to make sure it is working correctly. If you live in a hard water area, you may find drippers become blocked with lime scale, so check them from time to time to make sure water is still flowing, and descale any blocked nozzles or pipes as necessary.
Making watering automatic With a network set-up providing drip irrigation for your containers, capillary matting for small pots in the greenhouse and leaky hose watering your fruit and vegetables, complete automation is just a step away. This is a lot easier than you might think with special timers to switch the mains water supply on and off or even a watering computer that can be preset to irrigate different parts of the garden at different times via an automatic water distributor.
