Watering neighbours plants and suggesting a gardener

[WhereIBelong]

A neighbour has asked us to water her plants when she is away for 3 weeks. She has a big garden with lots of pots and a greenhouse that she said would need watering daily and other flower beds with plants and shrubs that would need watering 3 times a week. We said no due to the time it would take but offered her our gardeners phone number who we use to water our garden when we are away.

My parents were here when she asked and they said it would have been nice of us to help and that we were rude for giving them the gardeners number. I think we were helpful offering a solution and don’t see how it was rude. What do you think?

That's a nice cash in hand job for a student or someone out of work or only working part time. Absolute cheeky fuckery to ask a neighbour in the same way that you may ask them to put the bins out!

We have an agreement with a neighbour that we water each other's gardens when needed. It works out about the same... we have slightly more to water but for a shorter period of time. He is away for 3 weeks at the moment. We went on holiday during the first heatwave, he is on holiday now.

It is nice for us to be able to ask him, and for him to be able to ask us. Also while we were away out camera captured some footage of 2 people loitering around the front of our house and we felt able to ask him to check it out. It was nothing... Just leafleters who chose to stand and chat right outside our house.

It is nice for us to have that kind of reciprocal arrangement - if it doesn't work for you, fair enough.

I occasionally ask my neighbour to water my tomatoes in the summer for a few days when I'm unavoidably away, but I hate asking as I feel it’s a huge imposition (he's happy to do it, though). So I agree with you, OP, 2 weeks and a huge garden/pots is way too much. For them to pay your gardener is a good compromise.

I can no longer water at all so it's all down to my husband and he is finding that he's struggling a bit. Can you tell me what the situation is with irrigation systems during hosepipe bans, please?

I think watering a few tomatoes in the greenhouse and a couple of rows of runner beans once a day is fine

Anything else......pay someone to do it

I am all for reciprocated neighborly favors.
You need good neighbors.
But it’s not like an emergency, they have had time to implement an irrigation system.

Do you qualify for priority treatment if so you can use a hose.
Check it out on your providers website.

You are DNBU. We have pots and flower beds plus greenhouse and it has been truly exhausting keeping them watered and alive this year. Popping next door to hose around might sound straight forward on the face of it, but real life conditions for maintaining a watering schedule are not always as straightforward as they sound (reeling hose in & out, access, steps, etc) and the schedule your neighbour has suggested would be very demanding of your time.

There are steps that anyone who cares about their garden could take for going away, such as setting up an irrigation system, and bark mulching of the flower beds. These do work. That would mean that the pots are taken care of and the flower beds can get away with once a week.

We don't have a ban here. I think we should get ourselves on the priority list , so thanks for the prompt. I'm really just thinking about future proofing.

I don't think it is at all ridiculous for pots, depending on the plant and a few other variables. Many (not all) of my pots have needed daily watering in this hot weather

We're with Anglian water, and we're allowed our irrigation system because it drips rather than sprays. We still have to do a little watering, because everythings on the same system and if we have it set high enough for the courgettes in the veg patch then the pots in the greenhouse flood. But overall it is good and means we don't have to bother the neighbors when we go away (or forget!)

@Floatlikeafeather2
This is the brand we have: Claber drip kit 25
https://www.claber.com/en/prodotti/scheda/90759/Drip-kit-Plus-25-pots

I think you can get quite complicated with the setup. We haven't, but as I said it's sometimes hard to balance the needs of all the plants.

We got it from these guys: https://www.easygardenirrigation.co.uk/

What did they say when you said no?

Thanks. Most posters have concentrated on it being a big ask to water the garden for her which I agree it was, but I’m wondering more about whether people think it was rude of us to offer our gardeners number like my parents think it was. They said she asked us to water the garden, not for a gardener, so we were rude and presumptuous to think she would want one or could afford one, while we saw it as a possible solution so thought we were being helpful.

That sounds reasonable. It's more helpful than just a flat 'no'. And frankly it sounds a big job.

You were offering her a solution. That was helpful and better than just saying No.

I don’t see why your parents think that. You were just giving them an alternative-they don’t have to take you up on it if they don’t want to/can’t afford it.

They are asking for you to do a service for them, unpaid. You said no and suggested where they could get this service.

…ultimately, if they can’t find someone to do it free for them, they will have to choose to pay, or not have the service; that is life.

Who honestly cares what your mother thinks?

Tell your parents to do it if they have so much free time and an abundance of good will. You gave a helpful suggestion. I’m watering a friend/neighbour’s garden in a hose pipe ban area and while I’m happy to help her it’s a massive ballache.

Thank you. That's very helpful. Sounds ideal.

I think it could be perceived as rude because you were offering a solution which will cost money, whilst your neighbour was looking for a freebie. Your gardeners number could be seen as a pointed slight

No it really is.

Even baskets in full sun I am doing once every 3 days if in situ, and once every 5 if dunk watering.

If your plants are suffering it’s because you have trained them to suffer because you have encouraged the roots to grow on the surface where the water is; and/ or your soil is dead.

Take the whole basket / pot. Stick it in a bucket of water overnight and it should revive it. Next year, water well less frequently and you will encourage the roots to grow down into the deeper parts of the pot.

For large pots water as needed very very well. And mulch. I am watering large pots and trees in pots every 1-2 weeks in this heat.

Anything works. Depends on your soil what you want to use and whether you want to also condition/ correct. Ie. Bracken based or mushroom based is great for clay. Hay based good for loam.

For large gardens it’s expensive so you either want to go with permanent solution like gravel/ shale/ sand (I don’t like wood chip because it alters ph) or if it’s a large garden you have enough space to make your own.