Garden Watering Dilemma

Eriba although obviously in the summer it will be dryer, I don’t think that it will change as much as you think, it’s a very wet County, it seems the North more than the South, not sure where you are. I used to work in Exeter and it would be beautiful weather all day, on arriving home OH would often say it had rained all day. Holidaymakers often complain they are unlucky to get a wet week, no, it’s very often a wet week. Even if you are away for a while most large pots will be fine if you move them to the thick shade under your trees, it will rain. We have been here nearly 40 years (almost locals) and we have never once watered our garden, only newly planted things and pot plants. And I have a vast amount of plants and shrubs. It’s such heavy rain this morning that Noah and his Ark has just floated past.

DEBSC we are in Hatherleigh, about 10 miles north of Okehampton [aka Soakhampton] just off the A386.

I must admit the last 4 months have been a learning curve on finding the advantages and disadvantages of living in Devon.

Colin

I don’t think that it will be quite as wet as here. We used to have a farmer living next door born and bred Devonian, he always said at the village where we live, near Barnstaple just on the estuary, that we would always get the clouds emptying just as they come into the bay after crossing the Atlantic. He always seemed to know what he was talking about.

How do you like our roads. 😁 

The roads are very variable. Long stretches of lovely smooth tarmac and sweeping curves, a joy to be on, and then potholes that would throw a cyclist or motorbike into a hedge. Traffic at present is very light, but we are expecting things to be a lot different come the tourists. 

Colin

Weather was no drier  in 1901 when this was written .  But we pay a lady to water the greenhouse 

You need a better gardening strategy if you are away for long periods of time. Pots and containers, hanging baskets are simply too difficult to maintain without water on a regular basis, so we ditched the vast majority of these years ago. If you are replacing plants, or re planting a section of the garden, then consider drought resistant plants, and dig in plenty of water retaining humous. Then put a deep layer of mulch, ideally something like bark on the top to stop things lower down drying out too quickly. That’s a long term plan. Then as others have said, catch as much rainfall as you can, in a variety of ways. Shower water can be diverted from fall pipes into water butts. If you have any fall pipes that go direct to ground, fit a pierced sock on the end to take some of the water away from the immediate fall area. Auto systems are an option, but will possibly use from mains.