When the sun is shining and you are basking in the glory of your beautiful garden, be sure to remember one of the most important maintenance tasks, watering!

Whatever the weather, plants lose water through their leaves all the time, so it’s essential to ensure there’s enough to replenish the roots.  In the lovely warmth of summer, water is lost from the soil by evaporation and plants lose water more quickly, so watering will need to be done more often.

Watering properly takes time, especially if you have a big garden, so take a look at our ideas to see how you can make this vital task as easy as possible.

Lawn Watering

We are all familiar with grass slowly turning brown over the Summer and then springing back to life at the first drop of rain – and this is because grass has a self-preservation mode and becomes dormant when water levels become critical. This means that watering a lawn is usually an active choice, but it will also be necessary if you wish to keep a good surface for games, if you’ve laid a new lawn, if you’ve carried out some repair and maintenance work and need to promote recovery, or if you just like your lawn green throughout the Summer!

If you’re going to water, then you need to do this when your lawn demonstrates the following telltale signs – when the colour becomes ‘dull’ and your lawn loses its ‘springiness’ and footprints remain when the grass would normally bounce back into shape – and how soon these signs occur will also depend on the type of grass you have, and its exposure to sun and wind.

When you do water, make sure that you water sufficiently – at least half an inch for clay soils and an inch for sandy soils.

Wet grass at night is susceptible to disease, so you should always water before the heat of the day with enough time for the lawn to dry before nightfall.

Automatic Watering

Automatic watering takes water from your water supply to your plants using a simple network of narrow pipes and outlets hidden in your garden.  As it can be controlled manually or using a timer, it offers great flexibility and will make sure your plants are properly watered all season. There are several options for water delivery:

Drippers which drip water slowly to the plant roots directly and are great for containers and baskets.

Micro jets or misters  which spray water in a fine mist and provide more extensive coverage  – so these are good in borders and veg beds.

Leaky pipe, purposely designed to leak along its entire length which delivers slow and deep watering for borders, beds and veg beds, using less water over a larger area.

And once your watering system is in place, a timer connected to your water source offering a range of programmes makes the whole process hassle-free – there’s even one with a rain sensor which will override the programme to save watering unnecessarily!

Holiday Watering

Making sure your garden is watered while you’re away used to be a task delegated to helpful neighbours and friends. An automatic watering system is one option of course, and there are lots of other handy products available which mean you don’t have to bother anyone else…

Watering spikes are spikes with tiny holes in them, designed to fit on the top of used soft drinks bottles. Simply fill your bottles with water, screw on your spikes and then plunge them into the soil (spike down obviously!) next to your precious plants. The water drips out slowly through the holes, making sure your plants stay refreshed – and you can use as many as you like around your garden.

Whether you have your growbags in the greenhouse or on the patio, a growbag waterer will look after your growbag crops for up to 14 days. Ideal for crops from chillies to strawberries, simply place your growbag on the waterer – the capillary watering spikes pierce the bottom of the bag and water is drawn up by your plants from the large capacity reservoir below.

Your houseplants will need water while you’re away too, and watering spikes are a great idea for larger pots.  Smaller pots can be gathered together in growbag trays lined with capillary matting. Place them where they won’t be in direct sunlight and close to a water source, then simply pop one end of the capillary matting into the water source and capillary action will do the rest!

Collecting Water

We all know that water is a valuable resource, so however you choose to water your garden it’s a good idea to conserve as much as you can by collecting and saving rainwater – and it will be of great benefit if your area has a hosepipe ban!

You can divert rainwater from your house, shed and greenhouse and store it in water butts connected directly to your guttering. There are many different styles of water butt available so there’s bound to be something to suit your garden. And whether you choose to use a simple watering can, or attach a complete watering system, you’ll always be sure of a good supply.

Whatever solution you choose, there’ll be something in our great range of garden watering products that’s right for you, so visit us today – and take the work out of watering!