How do I water a garden efficiently?

Most garden watering is done to the wrong plants at the wrong time in the wrong way. Frequent light watering trains shallow roots that then need more watering; established plants get watered when they don't need it; and midday watering loses much of it to evaporation.

What you'll need

• Watering can with a rose
• Mulch material
• Water butt (optional)
• Seep hose (optional)

Step by step

1. Prioritise: containers first, then new plantings, then fruiting and leafy crops.Established plants in the ground have root systems reaching moisture you can't see. They rarely need watering in a normal British summer.
2. Water deeply and infrequently rather than little and often.Deep watering encourages deep roots that find their own moisture. Frequent sprinkling trains roots to stay at the surface.
3. Water at the base of the plant, not over the foliage.Wet leaves encourage fungal disease, and much of the water evaporates before reaching the roots.
4. Water in the early morning where you can.Least evaporation, and foliage dries before nightfall, which reduces disease and slug activity.
5. Mulch beds and containers with 5cm of compost or bark.This is the single most effective water-saving measure. It dramatically reduces surface evaporation.
6. Check before watering — push a finger into the soil.Surface dryness tells you nothing. Damp 5cm down means it doesn't need water.
7. Install a water butt on a downpipe.Free water, better for plants than treated tap water, and it removes garden watering from a metered supply.
8. For a large area, a seep hose under mulch delivers water directly to roots with almost no loss.Far more efficient than a sprinkler, which loses a lot to evaporation and wind.

Tips

• A sunken pot or bottle next to a thirsty plant delivers water directly to the root zone rather than running off the surface.
• Grouping containers together reduces evaporation and makes watering quicker.
• Lawns don't need watering in most British summers. Brown grass is dormant, not dead, and recovers with rain.
• Newly planted trees and shrubs need watering through their whole first year, even in wet weather, since roots haven't spread beyond the planting hole.

Common mistakes

• Watering little and often — It trains shallow roots that suffer badly in any dry spell.
• Watering in the middle of a hot day — Much of it evaporates before reaching the roots.
• Watering established plants that don't need it — It wastes water and can encourage shallow rooting in plants that were coping fine.
• Not mulching — Mulch reduces watering needs more than any change in technique.

Questions people ask