If your garden is as important to you as spares are to us, then do I have something to get you as excited as a mouse in a cheese shop – garden watering tips! Garden watering tips galore!

• Need a new watering can? Why buy a new one when you can recycle a laundry detergent container? Just knock a few small holes into the lid and another into the top of the handle for air, then fill with water and pour! Your plants won’t mind – promise
• If you like the idea of using a sprinkler in your garden but are less keen on forking out cash for one (especially when you could be spending the money on that desperately-needed cooker element or replacement fridge handle from eSpares) then just improvise and make your own soaker hose instead. Grab an old piece of hosepipe and plug the end up with some cork, a stick or even some silicon sealant (make sure it’s left to cure though), then use a nail to pierce a few holes along the end of the hose. Connect the hose to the garden tap and you’re good to go.
• If you’re finding that the water drains too quickly through hanging baskets when you water them, try placing ice cubes into the soil instead. That way, the water will be released through the soil more gradually as the ice cubes melt and your pansies will get to imagine what it would be like to live in Antarctica.
• When you’re struggling for space in the shed then a hose reel might just be one item too many. Fortunately, there’s a far easier solution that will stop your hosepipe from becoming a tangled mess. Drive a hollow stake into a quiet corner of the garden and use this to coil the hose around. When the hose is fully wrapped around the stake you can simply rest the spray nozzle in the end. This way as soon as your plants are thirsty, you are always ready to go!
• If you’re concerned about wasting water but you don’t want your beloved tulips wilting before their time, then there are a few simple tips to try. Always do the watering either late in the evening or early morning, this ensures the water doesn’t evaporate away in the heat of the day before it reaches the roots. Also, weed around plants regularly to stop those garden pests soaking up all the water and leaving your flowers parched.

As these tips prove, there’s a lot more to being water-wise in the garden than simply fitting a water butt. If you have any handy watering tips of your own then we would love to hear about them.

Tags: Garden Care, Garden Watering