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5 Easy Watering Tips Every Gardener Should Know!
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5 Easy Watering Tips Every Gardener Should Know!



In this video, I’ll share 5 easy watering tips every gardener should know to keep their plants healthy and thriving. Whether you have a garden or allotment, these tips will help you water your plants effectively and efficiently. Perfect for beginners and experienced gardeners alike!I

Watch now to learn how to keep your garden looking its best!

so it’s a gorgeous day and the sun is out and this time of year it’s important to stay hydrated but also your plants need hydration So today I’m going to share with you my five top watering [Music] tips So tip one is knowing when to water So the top soil here is as dry as you like Um but do these plants really need watering or not Um now it will depend on the type of plant that you you actually got growing Um things like salad crops or peas and beans and things like that got quite shallow roots So their roots don’t go down too far But things like these strawberry plants their roots much more extensive and go further down So how do I know if this bed needs watering Now I could use the old method which is just to drill a hole put your finger in there see if it comes out there You can see it’s nice moist soil coming out of my hands So I know that although the top inch or so of this soil is dry bone dry underneath there is moisture So these plants don’t need any watering Or alternatively you can use the uh sort of bamboo stick or um skewer um or chopstick method We just take the stick push it down into where you think the depth of the roots will be pull it out and just feel the stick and you’ll feel that that’s moist under there These plants don’t need watering Although it might feel like the the ground is dry they don’t actually need watering If you overwater your plants it’s as bad as not giving them water at all If you overwater them water the soil will be saturated with water They won’t have the air that they need for the roots Um and you’ll get poor growth Now you could just go around with your stick or you could just leave these sticks in place at the right root depth And then when you come around to do your watering just pull them out give them a feel see if they’re dry or if they’re wet Um if they are wet you don’t need to water If they’re dry you need to give them a water And next we’ll talk about how to water them Now I see a lot of people with their watering cans going like this seeing that the top soil is wet and moving on All you’ve done there is you’ve dampened down the top soil and the top inch that was already dry anyway And when it’s nice hot sunny day that’s just going to evaporate off and it’s never going to make it down into the actual soil So what you want to do if the if the surface is dry and you’re getting a lot of runoff yeah go around first of all just give it a light watering just to dampen that top soil But then once you’ve actually uh got um the soils like that go around give it a good soaking You want that water to get all the way down Yeah Give it a good good old soaking through Yeah That way the water is going to get down into the soil below That means actually you’ll end up watering more on one day but the other days of the week you just don’t have to water at all So the key to watering a lot of plants is to make sure that you water lots but less frequently You’re better off giving them a good dose of water every 3 days than you are trying to just give them a little bit of a sprinkling every day If you give them a little bit of a sprinkling every day that water is never going to make it down into the root system If you give them a good soaking that gives the water chance to get down the plants to absorb that water the soil to dry out a little bit to allow the air and everything else around those roots to actually help them grow Um and you won’t end up water logging the plants So key to watering is more water but less frequently And where you’ve got plants that you’re growing um you can obviously sprinkle over the top If you’ve got individual plants like brasas or anything else take your rose off You can get the water right down at the root and just pulled it around the actual root and where the stem’s coming up through the soil instead of spraying all over the plants Now people do say “Oh don’t water when it’s sunny cuz you’ll scorch the leaves.” There isn’t much scientific evidence to actually say you actually scorch leaves Very often what you see on leaves where they’ve been watered and it’s dried off is residue where we live in quite a lime scaly area and you’ll get the lime scale and and bits developing on the leaves Um so you’re not going to harm your plants by actually watering over the top when it’s sunny Um but as I say if possible get it right down into the roots you’re just using less from evaporation And that brings me on to point number three winter water Now it’s best to water in the mornings if you possibly can It avoids all the actual um evaporation during the hot of the day If you water late in the evening the chances are that the leaves and the soil will still be wet That encourages diseases and pests when it cools down overnight Um so try and the water as early in the morning as you possibly can Um as I say if you don’t get that until sort of later on the the day that’s fine But trying to avoid watering very late in the evening Um that way that any slugs and anything else you’re just creating a lovely environment for when the weather cools off and the sun’s gone down you got nice moist soil you got nice moist leaves they’re going to just chomp away on those So try and get your watering in as early as possible And to help retain some of that water that’s actually you’ve put on put a mulch on something like some bark chippins um or some dried grass and vegetation on top of your beds That means that the water you put in there will soak down through and less chance of it evaporating out So anything will do or if you got like sort of like bark chipping or grass clippings or any other type of mulch just over the surface of the soil that will just help retain that so moisture in the soil for longer and stop the evaporation process coming up So number four clever strategies Now there are some clever strategies that you can use to actually maintain as much water retention in your pots and in your beds as possible Now one of those is down with our what we’ve done with our potatoes So down here on the potatoes you’ll see that what we’ve got was the these black buckets and they’ll really absorb the heat and actually sort of heat up during the day and actually make the moisture go away So what we’ve done is we’ve grouped them all together and put them as close to as possible to each other um and kept them in some bark down at the bottom So if you’ve got any pots um in your garden or anything else pull them all together into a big group of uh pots That way there’s less surface area exposed to the sun and there’s less chance of evaporation coming off of those In the greenhouse we use capillary matting Um so we’re not watering over the top We’re just putting the water in here And if you set up the capillary mattings with a little bit of a water reservoir and matting going from the reservoir into the actual capillary matting area where we’ve got capillary matting under these trays That water get dragged across into these and they always have some water down at the bottom um where the roots are Um and despite the actual plants looking quite dry on top um they’re still getting plenty of water underneath and everything that the roots need So we use matting in all our trays Um means we can bottle water things You’re not getting evaporation from the top and the roots are just getting exactly what they need Here in the poly tunnel we use oyers Now these pots are just terra cotta pots that have got a cork in the bottom of them to stop the water draining out And what happens is the water goes into there and then the terra cotta pot um pot gets wet and then the so the water slowly leeches its way into the actual um soil all around And then we just keep that covered over with a little tray um pot bottom um to actually keep the water in there So that’s way one way we can maintain the moisture in this bed When the bed’s wet enough and wetter than the terra cotta pot you won’t get any um of this water going in But once the actual uh soil starts to dry out a little bit it will suck the actual moisture out of the pot and into the soil The other thing you can do is put small plastic pots into the actual ground and instead of watchly watering the actual top surface just fill those up with water and that water will then slowly go down into the actual soil right down at the root level where it’s actually needed rather than all around the plants where it’s just not going to it’s just going to wet this soil and evaporate off The other thing you can do is use shade cloth Um we use shake cloths in the greenhouse to keep it cool But you can if you if it gets particularly hot putting up any type of material around your crops will just keep the hotness of the sun off of them and then actually um it could be just like a bit of fleece or anything else on a really really hot day It also helps just maintain some of that moisture into the soil So lastly let’s talk about pots Whether it be a small pot like this or a large pot with a plant in it Now this has got dry compost in it Um and you’ll see what happens when I put water onto dry compost As you can see it just runs all the way through and straight out again That’s because dry compost and dry soil is very hydrophobic in that it won’t absorb any of the actual water that’s going in there Um it will just drain all the way through So to keep hold of your pots two strategies either give them a little bit of a light watering like we did with the beds just to get actually wet the top soil and then water them again or use some sort of plant tray so that the water will actually go run through Water will sit in the tray and then the soil can absorb it at its own pace Alternatively you can get hold of these little dripper systems Now normally them fit some sort of type of bottle Just put the bottle on there Turn it over Put it in the soil Turn the tap on a little bit And then just let it slowly drip out of the water bottle That way it’s a bit of a small pot for it but that way it’s slowly dripping onto the soil and that’s giving it the chance the opportunity for the actual soil to absorb some of that moisture and actually soak it up before it drains all the way through So be protect is particularly um careful with your pots Pots are really prone to drying out especially if you’ve got terra cotta pots or metal pots in hot weather If you’ve got that and you like the look of terracotta and you love the look and understand the aesthetics of it maybe consider actually repotting your plant into plastic pots and put the plastic pots inside the metal container or the terra cotta container and that way they’ll retain more moisture Terra cotta naturally will leech any moisture out through its surface Metal will get really really hot um during the day with the sun on it which will boost the temperatures up and make the evaporation process even faster So consider putting plastic pots inside your decorative pots and that will just help retain a little bit more moisture So that is my five top tips for making sure that you get your plants nicely watered and they survive through the hot weather So let’s quickly run through those again One no winter water Make sure you test your soil at the root depth that the plants are at to make sure they actually need the moisture and you’re not drowning them Two water more but less frequently So give them a really good soaking when you do water but don’t do it so often Three water early in the morning um to avoid leaving your soil and your leaves damp in the evenings and during the hot weather in the day when you’re going to lose loads of evaporation and use mulches and um grass clippings or anything else just to cover the soil just to maintain and keep that moisture locked into the soil Fourthly use little strategies like oyers Um as I say we already mentioned the mort Use um plastic pots in the ground so you can get the water down at the level that it’s needed Use capillary matting so you’re bottom watering your seedlings and you’re not top watering and letting all the water um evaporate off before the roots have got a chance to get it And fifthly look after your pots Pots are really susceptible to drying out So with pots it’s very often it’s no good just going out there and giving them a massive great big jug of water What you need to do is you need to give them a little bit of water slowly Um then come back a little bit later on give them a little bit more once the moisture’s um got into the pot Um as I say pots will notoriously dry out And once a pot is completely dried out it is really hard to get it rehydrated You really need to get those pots and you need to stand them in some reservoir of water or something like that or use a dripper system that’s dripping over a reasonable amount of time to actually get that soil to rehydrate because for the a long time it will be this hydrophobic state where it will just let water flow straight off of it So keep your plants alive Happy watering and I will see you again next time Cheerio

33 Comments

  1. @nicholasryan5401

    Greetings from Ireland, Interesting video, We have a small front garden with four garden beds, fifty two terracotta pots of perennials and ten terracotta pots of African daisies on the two front windowsills. I only water with a watering can and the pots get ninety litres of water if they are really dry. The flowerbeds get one hundred and eighty litres of water. My wife has no interest in gardening and has said more than once that the place looks like a mini garden centre and if she sees one more pot I will be sleeping in the garden.

  11. @Martine-c3t

    Great advice thank you .. I need to go away and have lots of veg growing so I can use your ideas and go away without worrying too much .. thank you new subscriber ☺️

  12. @Suespringy

    Thank you for sharing Steve… I can now see where I’ve been going wrong 🤦🏽‍♀️! Just subscribed… for ‘down to earth’ advice! Thank you from sunny Warwickshire! 🤗☀️

  13. @lynnegunns604

    Some great ideas there. Also remember after initial few watering brassicas don’t need regular watering cos you want to encourage the roots to dive down and find water this encouraging better root systems and in doing so helping security of the plant going forward.

  15. @stevesamoffgridsmallholdin5378

    Useful video some good ideas I especially like the end one bottle watering spike I am going to look into these. during the day the sun will warm the water and not shock the plant and if you need to go away for a few days great👍

  20. @Mimi-m8c9g

    New subbie here. Trying to grow a few things this year – my windowsill is FULL of pots and containers with bulbs and seeds! I have a bad history with growing. As a kid in a convent school, I was asked one time by one of the older nuns to weed the little flower bed behind the school for her. I froze. "How will I know which ones are the weeds?" It was early spring and not all the residents of said flower bed had bloomed – heck some hadn't even grown a bud. "Aw," she replied, "Just leave the pretty ones and take out the not-so-pretty ones". Fair enough. Off I went with new found confidence in my ability to do the job. Pretty simple. A while later I reported back to Sister Finbar to tell her "all done". She was thrilled and walked me out to admire my work. When she got there she gasped and cried "What have you done?" "I did what you asked. I left all the pretty ones and took out the rest." "You've picked out all the flowers". Oops. But instead of giving out to me she thanked me for teaching her to look beyond what she thought of as beautiful and to find beauty in even the most annoying weed! Anyway, sorry for long comment. Appreciate the video and picked up some great tips there. Thank you so much. Looking forward to learning more.

  30. @Chanesmyname

    Or buy an inexpensive moisture probe that tells you if it is wet, moist or dry as you push it into the soil to the root depth?

  32. @NameSurname-p3r

    Styaap doin this, styaap doin that! Ten things yev bin doin wrang!! Another clueless c trying to sell his ignorance on the free market of YouTube.
    Well, I'll tell you what ye yerself should stop. Stop giving random 'advice' pulled up of god knows where and first grow something to have something to show. Otherwise it's another scam 😡

  33. @mikeedward3161

    I feel that the making of our own compost is a way of improving better watering, as the compost is better at holding the actual water than brought compost.I have been making compost for a only a few years but seen a greater production from what I have actually produced as the worm production has increased, which did not happen when I purchased the bought compost. I feed my compost all year round and actually take as great pride in that production as I would do with plants of all kind.

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