Well that title has given away the slightly embarrassing and not often played part of my record collection from the days when albums were 12” black vinyl in cardboard sleeves that you could actually read the notes from. Today I am considering watering which at this time of year takes a fair bit of my day. The watering of the pots, conservatory and greenhouse takes me about an hour and a half and that is 7 days a week. So as I explained to my friend who wants to replace his lawn with a large patio and pots there is still quite an effort and cost involved keeping the pots watered and that is before any consideration of who maintains them when they are on holiday.

I prefer to water as the first job in the morning and I water until the excess begins to come out of the bottom of the pot, that ensures that the potting compost is wet throughout. You wouldn’t want me looking after your house plants with that method. If you are unsure if a pot needs watering one method is feeling the weight of a plant or lifting a corner if its an outside tub, dry potting compost is very much lighter. In the old days of clay pots we used to tap the rims and if they made a ringing sound then they needed a drink, over vigorous tapping however could have a shattering effect! As for plants in the open ground or when repotting I always plunge anything in a pot or tray in the water but until the bubbles stop and then give the plant a soak from a watering can, without the rose fitted, immediately after planting.

At Reveley I keep the watering of outside borders to a minimum usually only on first year plantings as we mulch as much as possible and so far this year I have only watered the vegetable area twice. There are exciting water conservation and rain harvesting practises on building and landscape projects but unfortunately I cannot see the funds necessary for any of these to be installed at Reveley being available in the short term so you will be seeing brown grass in the summer up here for sometime yet.

Now where on earth did I hide my Marc Bolan collection ?

7 July 2014