Why you should never water your lawn, even in weather like this
And (rejoice!) you don’t need to water your plants every evening either
Compare and contrast the gorgeous emerald courts of the all england Club with the yellowing dust bowl that, right now, is your average British lawn.
To achieve Wimbledon’s brand of perfection, 34 groundsmen labour yearround to bring the Club’s 38 verdant patches of premium rye-grass to peak condition, cutting it to exactly 8 mm each day, rolling it, then fertilising and aerating in winter.
perhaps the most crucial ingredient behind the upkeep of the nation’s most famous lawns is, however, water. Lots of it.
moisture rods in each court monitor undersoil conditions, allowing head groundsman Grant Cantin to ensure his grass never, ever goes thirsty. In current conditions, they get a liberal soaking every night.
So should we also be watering our lawns to keep them green and pristine? and what about our beds and borders?
IT’S ANTI-SOCIAL TO USE A SPRINKLER
IT’S certainly true that grass watered daily will stay green — but just because you can do something, doesn’t mean you ought to, and experts almost universally advise against using a sprinkler on the lawn.
Firstly, it’s anti-social. The UK has limited supplies of tap water, and households that pour hundreds of gallons onto their garden are exacerbating a growing shortage and bringing a hosepipe ban ever nearer.
Secondly, it’s a waste of effort better used elsewhere. Grass is a hardy plant which, in our climate, is almost impossible to kill. a lawn that looks parched today will quickly recover during a spell of wet weather.
‘Never, ever water your lawn — it’s a complete waste of time, energy, money and everything,’ is the stern verdict of Stefan Buczacki, former Gardeners’ Question Time panellist. ‘as I look out of my study, the lawn has gone from green to cornfield brown. But I know it will return, and in the meantime I don’t need to bother mowing every week.’
GETTING YOUR PRIORITIES RIGHT
IN NATURE, the weakest are always the most vulnerable. That means juvenile and new plants, which have yet to properly establish themselves, need the most looking after.
In current conditions, anything you’ve planted in the past couple of years ought to be given extra help.
Beyond that your priority should be the vegetables which are most vulnerable to drought.
‘Courgettes, lettuces, tomatoes, cucumbers — the soft succulent vegetables where the bulk of the crop is made up of water — are obviously the ones that need it the most,’ says Buczacki.
Vegetables such as cauliflowers ought to be left until the edible parts of the plant appear, and then watered liberally. The same goes for peas, beans and sweetcorn. Water them before their flowers appear and you’ll have huge plants with plenty of leaves, but not a lot of what you want to eat.
Starve it of water and it’ll worry it’s about to die, so set about the business of reproducing — giving you a bigger crop in the process.
THE BEST TIME TO WATER IS . . . 4 AM
TURNING on the hose when the sun’s beating down is pointless: on a warm windy day, 18 per cent of water can evaporate before it even hits the ground. In extreme conditions, water drops can even act as a sort of magnifying glass, scorching healthy leaves.
Logic dictates that gardeners should do the job at dusk, giving water plenty of time to work its way into the soil.
But there’s a catch. ‘ Typically, people get in from work, have a cup of tea and then turn on the hosepipe,’ says Guy Barter, chief horticulturalist at the royal Horticultural Society.
‘This means there’s a huge surge in demand at about 7pm, so the pressure in the system goes right down, and the job takes longer than it should. a better bet, if you can, is to do your watering when everyone else is in bed.’
Barter says 4am is actually the best time for the job: there is very little drying wind at that hour, and lots of pressure in the system.
You don’t have to be an insomniac to take advantage of these conditions, either: most garden centres sell timers that can be fitted to taps allowing them to do the job while you are asleep.
TECHNIQUE IS EVERYTHING
WATERING little and often might sound like a good idea, but it’s a big mistake. By constantly adding moisture to the upper layer of the soil, you are encouraging plants to develop a shallow root system.
For a plant to thrive, its roots need to grow as deep as possible.
The correct technique, therefore, is to give each plant a thorough soaking every week or two. ‘ rather than giving the whole garden a light spray, you should concentrate your efforts on a few different plants each night,’ advises Barter.
‘and to properly refresh the soil, you need much more water than you think — around four twogallon watering cans full, for each square metre of ground.’
and to ensure sufficient liquid actually ends up reaching your plants’ deep roots, he advises building a small bank of soil around the base of each plant before watering, thereby creating a small pool.
WHICH BEDS NEED MOST WATER?
THIS question divides the crowd. Buczacki takes a pragmatic approach, advising gardeners to water only the flowerbeds they see the most of.
‘It’s for aesthetic value,’ he says. ‘So if you have a bed that’s 100 yards from the house, you have to ask yourself whether it’s worth the effort. But if it’s right next to you, and you get pleasure from it, then of course things are different.’
Sometimes, as with vegetables, starving plants of water can actually make them flower better, adds Barter of the RHS. He recommends that plants in herbaceous borders get a good soaking every fortnight.
‘Things like delphiniums and lupins are surprisingly resilient, even in real heatwaves.
‘Then, after they have flowered, you can cut them back to ground level and, hopefully, they will re-flower in September.’
other experts are opposed to watering on principle. The late horticulturalist Beth Chatto, who died in may and laid out droughtresistant gardens for the prince of Wales, took the view that all gardens ought to be able to survive local conditions, so designed flowerbeds to need no watering once they were established.
CAN YOU STOP SOIL DRYING OUT?
a LaYer of mulch, particularly made from tree bark, can prevent water evaporating from the soil. But beware, there’s no point laying it down now (unless you’ve first soaked the ground thoroughly for hours) since that will simply lock existing dryness in.
If you do fancy mulching, add a small amount to the area immediately around each plant, straight after you have just given it a serious drenching.
BEST FLOWERS FOR A HEATWAVE
LOOK for plants that come from hot countries. Geraniums, for instance, are from South africa, hate their roots getting too wet and are comparatively drought resistant. Ditto african marigolds.
Herbs such as rosemary and thyme do especially well in the heat. So, too, does lavender.
PLANTS IN POTS — A SPECIAL CASE
AN exception to the ban on ‘ little and often’ watering are plants in pots, which have comparatively small amounts of soil to survive on, so should be watered every day.
If that job gets to be too much, the RHS advises transferring plants to bigger pots, which can retain more moisture, or moving them all into a shaded area.
pot plants standing in a single group are easier to water. and their close proximity to each other can create a micro-climate, helping them to retain moisture while other areas wilt in the heat.