Gardening: The Rich Brothers give tips on planting with pots
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More and more people are starting to think about pruning their garden ahead of summer, as we come toward the end of spring. Watering your plants is an absolutely essential part of maintaining your garden, but you may be wondering when to start giving your flowers a drop of water.
Watering your plants is an important part of allowing your foliage to grow.
But as simple as it sounds, it’s really easy to go wrong with your watering technique.
Watering your plants too early could hinder drainage, while leaving it too late could leave them dry and thirsty.
You should make sure to water all parts of your garden, including the plants, grass, and edibles.
When to start watering your plants
If you have a particularly large garden, you should try and water the plants all year round.
If they’re looking dry during the winter, there’s no harm in giving them a drop of water.
But as a general rule of thumb, you’ll want to start watering regularly from the start of May, according to the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS).
How often you water the plants depends entirely on the size, species and stage of growth of the plants.
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Best time of day to water your plants
If you’re looking to optimise your plants’ growth, you should consider watering the garden nice and early.
Watering in the mornings is ideal, as that’s when plants start to use their water.
It’ll also help to discourage pests from munching through your plants, added the RHS.
If you’d rather not get up at the break of dawn, however, you’re better leaving the watering until the evening time instead of the middle of the day.
“Water in the mornings, if you can, as this is when the sun comes up and plants will start to use water,” it said.
“The foliage and soil surface is also likely to stay drier for longer than evening watering, discouraging slugs, snails and mildew diseases.
“Plants start to transpire in sunlight, drawing water from the soil, through their roots, up their stems and out through tiny pores on their leaves called stomata.
“Watering in the heat of the day is not a good idea as much water is lost through evaporation from the surface of the soil and the plants will use water more efficiently if watered in the cooler parts of the day.”
If you’re worried that your plants aren’t getting enough water, there are few tell-tale signs that you should be looking out for.
They may not be growing as much as you’d expect, or have fewer flowers than anticipated.
The leaves or stems might appear dull or darker than normal, without any shine.
Your plants could also be dehydrated if the leaves start to point downwards, or curl into themselves.
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