Looking after your garden and conserving water in the heat

Local TV

We speak to a plant expert from Cowell’s Garden Centre about how to conserve water in the hotter months and how best to look after your plants and lawn this summer.

Transcript

00:00Typically, when plants look like they might be struggling, it is normally, a lot of the time, one of two things.

00:06That is too little water, very much so this year with how dry it's been, or too much water.

00:13People thinking they're giving the plant love, but they are in fact damaging it by almost flooding the roots.

00:17If we can add some sharp sand or perhaps a bit of grit to help with drainage, so when we are watering things aren't sat too wet.

00:24And then otherwise, some of the compost, obviously, we are really turning to peat free now, so they're slightly drier.

00:33So adding feeds and things like that, watering with feeds throughout the summer months can help massively as well.

00:39The compost has a lot of feeding up to six weeks sometimes, eight weeks, but a bit of mulch, whether that be on top of your pots or in the beds,

00:45helps massively just retaining water and keeping it slightly more soaked when you do water.

00:51The plants we look after, certainly out for sale, we have them in large metal tables now, which have plugs,

00:58which doesn't sound like an awful lot, but it means we can fill the tables up rather than watering overhead,

01:03because as plants grow, obviously they fill up more space to then try and hit the pot full of soil to get to the root.

01:11We've got a really large glass house, it covers an awful lot of the area,

01:15and when it does rain, we have downpipes into a really large water tank out the back behind the scenes.

01:21So that then feeds sprinklers around the perimeter, which we can turn on manually to water said area when customers aren't in store.

01:30We, you know, we'll sell water butts to people that become far more popular with the ever-changing weather.

01:36It's getting far hotter, so a smaller water butt just from a downpipe on top of the house.

01:43Yeah, I mean, natural rainwater is better for plants anyhow.

01:46They prefer it to any chlorine that might be in tap water.

01:49Yeah. Top tips for the warmer months would have to be, obviously, keep an eye on watering first and foremost.

01:58If you think the plant's probably had enough, it might not have, just with how hot it is.

02:03So perhaps leave the hose on for a little bit longer than you might normally.

02:07As I've alluded to, using water trays are really important.

02:12Favourite plants for the summer months? Anything flowery.

02:15We've got to try and bring some colour before we get into the autumn months.

02:18You know, there is far more flowering drought-tolerant plants now as well, which will cope with our summers.

02:26So colour, colour, colour for me. Got to be.

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