Guide to Summer Watering

Watering & The British Summer – Urgent

Lots of people have problems with newly planted hardy plants & bedding plants.

Each one is due to the same cause

LACK OF WATER!!!!!

What? You Cry!

YES even with all this rain your plants aren’t getting the water where they need it – at the roots.

The illustration above shows what happen when you water over the plant & not into the soil or pot. This is what happens when it rains. Most if not nearly all the rain never reaches te root ball.

This is due to:

1. the foliage shedding the rain away from the root ball.

2. when it stops raining most of it evaporated or runs away.

3. the root ball continues to dry a because of leaf evaporation – it then shrinks, pulls away from the soil leaving an air gap. Soil water won’t cross this gap. The root ball stays dry.

4. we all think it’s ‘rained enough’ & don’t need to bother.

Until the roots of your plants venture outwards into your soil they can’t find water for themselves. You need to do it. It might take most of the summer for this to happen so keep watering as described next.

SOLUTION:

1. create a hollow on the soils surface around the plant to act like a funnel.
2. water with a watering can (not a hose pipe – you only splash the surface) and pour it into the hollow.
3. water daily – even if it’s raining (put a coat on).

SOUNDS CRAZY but you want your plants to thrive don’t you. Plus water ‘stressed’ plants get more diseases, insect attacks too.

PLEASE SHARE this info. we always see these problems in a wet summer & never in a dry one.

Use this.