London Road Station Partnership Blog

It’s suddenly got hot. Temperatures have now been going over 20C for about 10 days. The French beans and the courgettes have perked up. But we haven’t had much rain for about 10 days. On Tuesday, our four water butts ran dry.

We’ve had to fill them up from the mains with a hose pipe trailed from Madeleine’s house. We took advantage of this arrangement to try to give both gardens a good soak. The shady garden also needed a shower to rid leaves of the horrible sticky sap dripping from the overhanging sycamore trees. This led to much discussion about what ‘a good soak’ or ‘proper watering’ is, and where the water should be directed. Here’s the long and short of it.

How much?        LOTS REGULARLY, NOT LITTLE AND OFTEN

We often give too little water to each plant. A useful rule of thumb says ‘slowly count to 10’ when watering any plant. A passing spray is no use at all, and can be positively risky for the plant (see below). Shallow watering encourages roots to grow only on the surface of the soil, which will weaken the plant’s ability to withstand wind and limit its ability to find moisture and nutrients. So a ‘good soak’ regularly, rather than little and often.  Use the finger test: if the soil feels dry at the end of your finger when you press it into the soil, then it needs watering thoroughly.

Can we be more scientific on how much water a garden needs? Some websites suggest 1 inch per week; 60 gallons (that’s around 30 watering cans) for a 100 square foot/11-12 square metre garden.

When?                  EARLY MORNING

Obviously, for watering to be most efficient, it needs to be done when evaporation is least:  early morning or late afternoon. It looks like early morning is the best time, for two reasons: 1) damp conditions at night attract slugs and snails, and 2) damp foliage can promote the development of fungal diseases, so leaves should have time to dry off before night fall.

Where?               ROOTS NOT LEAVES

It’s the roots that need the water, not the leaves. Water needs to go into the soil with as little splashing onto the leaves as possible. Splashing increases the risk of water-borne pathogens in the soil infecting the plants; and again, damp foliage can be susceptible to fungal disease.

How?                    GENTLY

A dripping hose – i.e. a hose pipe with small holes in it – is probably ideal: water gradually drips into the soil over an extended period of time. But for us, that’s not really possible. Things to bear in mind are: 1) over-energetic watering, for example with a high-pressure hose setting or strong stream from a watering can, can badly  damage plant roots. On the other hand, 2) spray can be ineffective and if it splashes up from the soil, can promote infection. So regular and gentle, not disturbing the roots.

What to do with very dry soil

When soil dries out, it loses its ability to absorb water, thus compounding the problem of drought. Organic matter absorbs water so is crucial to the water-holding capacity of the soil. That’s why we incorporate compost, manure etc. And of course, mulches on the surface of the soil prevent evaporation.

If soil does dry out, it becomes rather like concrete and dust, and plants won’t be able to access anything from it. The best thing to do is to gently water with a fine rose and then return about 30 minutes later to water more thoroughly. The initial watering helps the soil to absorb water. Pots need to be placed in a container of water until bubbles appear on the surface.

We’ve not paid the shady triangle a lot of attention so far this year. It’s coming into its own with lush green growth everwhere: the fatsia japonica is huge, the ferns are growing up high again, we had to cut back lamiums and green heuchera, and the clematis plants are growing strongly up our hazelwood pyramid.

It feels, though, like rather a lot of green. We’ve tried to encourage the bronzey-red heuchera, the purple aquilegia, but more recently, the foxglove, the antirrhinums from last year and the dusky pink ones we bought for this year have provided a bit of colour. Purples and dusky pinks seem to suit this area of almost full shade.

The successes so far have mainly been salads and other leaves. We’ve been harvesting rocket and lettuce regularly, and our cavalo nero is growing beautifully with edible bouquets being picked each Tuesday. The Unwins’ mixed lettuce leaves and rocket, seeds which we received free from Harvest, have given excellent crops.

As for our experimental carrot crop this season, hmm … I’m not sure. The carrots in planters put on magnificent green plumage, and though the resulting roots are quite fat and tasty, they are very mis-shapen and require a lot of cleaning. I added some to a Vietnamese-style soup today. Nice bright colour, but not sure they are the most worthwhile use of our limited space.

It keeps happening: just as I am trying to nurture a new plant, nature laughs in my face and produces a fine specimen in a neglected area. It’s actually quite reassuring – it puts us in our place.

It happened yesterday. We have been trying to grow coriander as many of us love this herb. We succeeded in germinating seeds and our seedlings have slowly grown. I potted on the largest at the weekend, having carefully researched the required growing conditions for coriander: deep pot, rich soil, some shade, not too wet. The three seedlings still look rather weedy. The other seedlings in 8cm pots have stopped growing.

As we weeded the tree pits where we have planted pansies, we came across a thriving coriander seedling, far bigger than the ones carefully cossetted in the greenhouse. It’s hard to see in the photo, but it’s definitely there and wonderfully pungent.

How did it get there? Quite possibly in our compost. All kinds of things have appeared after we’ve mulched with last year’s compost: tomatoes, cucumbers, chard … Or perhaps we emptied old seed trays here when we planted the pansies? Or perhaps seeds blew in when we were planting seeds in April? Who knows? At all events, we marvelled …