So, with the recent heat wave (when I say “heat wave” it felt more like someone was blow-torching the back of my neck – through the factor 50) and with all the watering I had to do. Not only my own garden by the way, but also for friend who is away in the south of France for a month – for some cooler weather – which was taking an hour a day. I got to wondering what better alternatives we sell at work for this chore we do for the plants we love.
Some of them are fairly obvious; whilst others are absolute genius if you ask me and I’ve already put my “staff order” in to help me out.
First and foremost, I have to say that I treated myself to a new hose this year. I got so fed up with the kinks, knots and tangles of my good old normal hosepipe that I decided to try something a bit different. I’d seen the “expanding hoses” on TV before but as they were a new innovation at the time; they were fairly expensive compared to a normal hose.
This is no longer the case, I ordered one of our Easy Hoses and quite frankly, I’m amazed! This weird looking cloth covered hose “crinkles” up to next to nothing when it’s not in use and looks like it wouldn’t reach my back door, let alone the sweet potatoes at the end of the garden. But turn on the tap and it literally “grows” to over 3 times its size! What’s more, it can’t kink and seems to untangle itself too, so I’m one happy chappie with it! Plus when you turn it off again it shrinks away back to its original size which still amuses me for no particular reason.
So, my amusing hosepipe aside, what else do we have that might be useful in a hot crisis?
The most obvious choice is an irrigation kit, these are a good price and each kit can water up to 22 individual pots or baskets. It’s literally just a case of running the pipe to the first pot, cutting it, putting in a “T” junction to take the first dripper and then carrying on to the next pot. There’s over 75 feet of pipe (23 metres) and so it’ll comfortably sort out a good run of different pots and baskets and to be honest, at the price, you can easily buy another and extend it if you need to. Once you’re all set up then it’s just a case of plugging it onto the outdoor tap and turning it on. Leaving it on for a few hours won’t flood anywhere as there’s a pressure regulator too so it’s all nice, safe and easy!
If you’re a tomato fan and are constantly worrying about blossom end rot, poor tomatoes and finding that keeping your plants well watered is almost impossible then the tomato auto-waterer collar is extremely useful. It’s a clear plastic open ended cone that just pushes into the soil/compost around the plant, fill it up with water to the brim and allow the water to percolate into the soil nice and slowly, rather than have it run off and water the weeds somewhere else! It has two other bonuses as well, the first one is that the top of the collar has a “double-back” on it which means that snails can’t climb up and over and munch away on your plants inside. The second bonus is that you don’t have to use it exclusively for tomatoes! If you’ve any other young plants that are in need of a bit of extra care and protection then pop one of these collars around it and away it grows!
For something a little more hi-tech and extremely clever there’s the Garden Gear Automatic Watering System. A handy little timer and pump combo that can be popped into a bucket of water and have up to ten little pipes running from it on a timed setting. It could easily be used in greenhouses, conservatories etc and there’s no reason why you couldn’t run the pipes out to a flower bed either, if you have a large enough reservoir of water to put the pump in, it could easily last for a week at a time – perfect for holidays!
My last one is probably my favourite, because I think it looks fun!
It’s the Mighty Dripper! This bad boy can hold over 2 gallons of water and does exactly what it says on the tin, it really is very easy to set up and I tend to think of it as an intravenous drip for my plants, I’m tempted to hand a couple on my fence (maybe decorate them) and fill them up and let them happily water 20 pots (10 each), only having to fill up the bags each day, or every other day would be so much easier – the big plus is that I can use water collected from my water butt too, rather than mains water, and could also add in liquid or soluble feed once a week!
Here’s video (not with me in it though!)
So while I sometimes don’t mind going out and watering, it’s also handy to know I’ve got other options available to me, I’m definitely going to try one or two (can you guess which?)
I’ve been gardening for as long as I can remember, my first earliest memory being planting seeds in my Grandfather’s prestige flower bed and having a prize lettuce growing there, which he proudly left to show everyone.
Since then, gaining knowledge and experience from both my Grandfather and my Father, I’ve continued to garden, both as a hobby and later on as a professional gardener and landscaper for 12 years. I love all aspects of it, from the design and build, to the planting out of summer borders with plants you’ve either grown from seed or raised from plugs. Unusual varieties always catch my eye and I’m keen to try growing them, even if sometimes it means learning from my mistakes.
I’m afraid I have been an April Fool. We went on a much needed holiday to the New Forest the day after the Easter Bank holiday. My first holiday since the cancer and heart failure, the weather down in Hampshire wasn’t the best, but the break was.
I’d planned the timings of all the greenhouse chores so all seedlings were transplanted, all recently sown seeds were in propagators, and all plug plants were establishing nicely. Mum and my best friend were asked to just check on things and give a good watering to them midweek and especially if the weather turned nice.
Best laid plans and all that! Mum had her sister home from Scotland, and also was on babysitting duties for both of my brothers’ children, as it was half term. In-between she was helping my youngest brother with his new business venture, so she wasn’t home much. My best friend unfortunately has a memory like a sieve at the moment and at least owned up to totally forgetting my plants, even though she walks her dog past my house at least once a day. When mum eventually had time to check on my greenhouse (the day before we came home,) the poor plants had all dried up.
My favourite quotes from mum are-
“Were they like that when you put them in the greenhouse?”
Nope. I don’t believe they were crispy.
“We had a really bad frost one morning. My shed roof was white!”
No one else remembers this.
And my all time favourite:
“Do you think I should have come down earlier in the week?”
Erm let me think about that…
I went through a myriad of emotions, but couldn’t really hold anyone responsible, as I did say to mum, that Rachel will check on the greenhouses and vice versa.
So confession time, how bad was the damage?
In The Office.
Expensive to buy in plug format, but grown from seed Himalayan Blue poppies all dead except two I had left in the tray in the kitchen.
Cape Gooseberries all dead except three left in the kitchen.
Trial Strawberry Blonde Marigolds. One seedling left after the whole packet germinated. As T&M gave me these seeds, I was mortified that I had killed their plants, so I ordered another packet from their website. I still have to trial them.
Trial Sunflower Shock-o-late seedlings all dead. Luckily I had only sown half the packet so I had some left over, which I have re-sown
Sunflower Velvet Queen same as above.
Lewisia, Basil Lemonade, Mint, Grasses, Foxgloves, Forget-me-nots, Hollyhocks, French Marigolds, Buddleja and Hyssop all dead.
Rainbow Beetroots – stressed. I rehydrated them little by little watering every few hours for the first two days.
Sweet Peppers. Hugely hardy and responded well to a good drink.
Just Bee flower mix, stressed, but stable.
Lettuce Mix. Difficult to say, some had died completely, some had thrived.
Dad’s spider plant – looking green again, with a little new growth.
A few stray beetroot seeds had germinated, along with radish, borage, chillies and a different variety of sweet pepper.
The trial Sweetpeas Turquoise Lagoon, were in pretty good shape as I had left a lid over the blue bread basket they were in, conserving the water in the soil by reducing evaporation.
Lavenders and Christmas cacti thriving.
In Ty Mawr,
No,damage whatsoever, in fact plenty of growth on everything.
It’s taken me up until the end of the month to clear the staging, between 35°c temperatures under the glass and torrential rain showers, gardening has been difficult. Once sorted the disaster out, I then decided to book another holiday in the New Forest, because that’s just the way I roll!
I told Mark that I wouldn’t buy any more seeds as I had enough, but as I had to replace the trial marigolds, it seemed silly to pay postage for just one packet of seeds, so I went onto the Special Offers page and looked at the 99p range. I set myself a budget, and for once actually stuck to it.
The Office.
Even though I haven’t sown all of my seeds I bought last week, I have started with six Glory Lily seeds. At around 16p each these beauties grow into six foot climbers. The tubers are not hardy so will need to be stored like a dahlia. It takes a few years to flower, so I really hope I get these right. Another new seed I picked was herb Golden Feverfew. I would like to add this perennial pretty yellow mound forming leafy plant to the grassy knoll area. Its daisy-like flowers should soften the structure of the other strappy grass fronds. I am trying achieve a low maintenance area without the use of gravel, concrete or man-made products. I next sowed African Marigolds Spinning Wheels, followed by Garden Pea Alderman. I love this vegetable it’s sweet, abundant and easy to grow. Again, a new seed I chose for 99p was a Potentilla named Monarchs Velvet, this too, is a perennial, I am hoping it will fit in with the black and blue grasses in the knoll. If not, then maybe I will grow it in clumps near the wildlife borders.
As the basil had died and I didn’t have the lemonade type left, I decided to grow both Rubin and Sweet Genovese instead.
Then I sowed Rudbekia Green King, and although I haven’t grown this variety I have had success with Rudbekias. Finally, I sowed some free seeds from Gardeners’ World Zinnia Orange King and repotted some of the aubergines from my completely unscientific seed trial. Oh and I’ve also re-sown the both types of sunflower mentioned above, as well as the Strawberry Blonde Marigolds, plus the Mint and Hyssop.
The Office border has turned into a mess. The money tree has re sprouted, but thanks to the extra space the aloes have almost carpeted the soil. Fighting for survival are two houseplants, some violas, a rogue cornflower, and an unexplained poppy and foxglove. Mark and I have come to the decision that we are going to try and remove some aloes to the grassy knoll. I have no idea if they will live, but I have to do something.
The same day these arrived I potted up some rosemary cuttings, I had left to root in water before going away.
Ty Mawr.
The first job was for Mark to earth up the potato sacks, feed them, and move them to their final growing positions outside. Then he planted up the stored Dahlias. Once he had done that, we realised that growing Cornflowers under glass was probably not my best idea. They loved the conditions too much, so on the hottest day of April he evicted them to the garden, where they are now flowering. Mark also transplanted eight tomatoes to their final growing places. Part of my trial plants and some of last year’s yellow stuffers. He then transplanted some of my beetroot. Another of my unscientific experiments – I am seeing if they grow better under glass or out in the fresh air. Also growing happily in the borders are Turnip, Garlic and English Marigolds.
In Rhett’s House (aka) The Cold-frame, I have the Coleus Canninia, they survived the unintentional drought and to prevent them going sappy were moved there as soon as we were back. Keeping them company are some marigolds, some larkspur, Bee Mix plants, a random geranium I found in the back of The Office, a Malva and something that I can’t identify as the label has disappeared. It looks like a primula. Plus several Borage plugs. You’d think that would have been enough wouldn’t you – but no, in my infinite wisdom after doing a happy dance that not only my chillies designed to do well hanging baskets had germinated, but also the super hot ones in the fire bucket Andrew (younger brother) had given me had germinated too, I remembered that Richard (youngest brother) had given me a funky veg kit. So I had a go at that too.
The funky veg kit comes with cardboard type pots, soil disks that expand in water five packets of seeds and five labels. Lucky me had six packets. Although I’ve only chosen to grow three due to the fact that the greenhouse will be a bit full shortly. For now I’m trying Purple Brussels Sprouts, Purple Carrots and Yellow Courgettes. The instructions were simple. Place disks in water and leave to expand until they are seven times bigger. Squeeze out the excess water, put most of the soil in the pots, add the seeds, then cover with leftover soil. Label, leave on a kitchen windowsill.
My name is Amanda and I live in Pembrokeshire with my fiancé and our garden is approximately 116 meters square. I want to share with you my love for gardening and the reasons behind it, from the good to the bad and ugly. I want to do this for my own personal pleasure. If you would like to take the journey with me then please read my blogs and share with me your gardening stories.
I love to see the sun as much as anybody and it certainly makes the plants grow, but they could also do with a shower of rain from time to time.
Unfortunately we have not had a drop of rain for weeks, so my main job every evening is watering. In the garden its best to use the water accumulated in the water butts, but these are now running dry so you will have to fill up from the mains tap. Watering all the pots, baskets and greenhouses takes about half an hour each night and the odd plant also needs watering in the borders to stop it wilting in the heat taking another half an hour. This needs to be done to keep the display looking good.
The roses planted in the front garden have looked superb, they must have loved the cool spring because I have never seen better foliage colour and the blooms seem of a more intense colour.
The begonias in the greenhouse are blooming nicely now and the large flowers need supporting with some special wire supports to hold the blooms upright and facing me. I must admit it has become a family joke with my wife and children, as they know if they can’t find me in the mornings I must be out in the greenhouse talking to the begonias. I am not talking but I will be fiddling with them supporting blooms, tying up stems or just admiring the blooms.
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I’m afraid I have been an April Fool. We went on a much needed holiday to the New Forest the day after the Easter Bank holiday. My first holiday since the cancer and heart failure, the weather down in Hampshire wasn’t the best, but the break was.
Best laid plans and all that! Mum had her sister home from Scotland, and also was on babysitting duties for both of my brothers’ children, as it was half term. In-between she was helping my youngest brother with his new business venture, so she wasn’t home much. My best friend unfortunately has a memory like a sieve at the moment and at least owned up to totally forgetting my plants, even though she walks her dog past my house at least once a day. When mum eventually had time to check on my greenhouse (the day before we came home,) the poor plants had all dried up.
Then I sowed Rudbekia Green King, and although I haven’t grown this variety I have had success with Rudbekias. Finally, I sowed some free seeds from Gardeners’ World Zinnia Orange King and repotted some of the aubergines from my completely unscientific seed trial. Oh and I’ve also re-sown the both types of sunflower mentioned above, as well as the Strawberry Blonde Marigolds, plus the Mint and Hyssop.
The funky veg kit comes with cardboard type pots, soil disks that expand in water five packets of seeds and five labels. Lucky me had six packets. Although I’ve only chosen to grow three due to the fact that the greenhouse will be a bit full shortly. For now I’m trying Purple Brussels Sprouts, Purple Carrots and Yellow Courgettes. The instructions were simple. Place disks in water and leave to expand until they are seven times bigger. Squeeze out the excess water, put most of the soil in the pots, add the seeds, then cover with leftover soil. Label, leave on a kitchen windowsill.
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