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?

Perfect. Your parents can water her plants. 👍

She was a cf to even ask. You would have been mad to agree to this.

They do, but the mulch will help them last days longer before they need watering again. This helps them to put down their roots so that they need less water going forwards.

Seeing that one or two of us are straying into the territory of actual gardening & watering, I will also add that if you put a flat stone or roof tile a few centimetres to the south west of a plant that is struggling with heat wave conditions, this will also help to shade and protect the roots.

New gardens need watering yes. If you water every day your planting won’t survive a normal summer let alone a heatwave drought summer.

Annuals have been in for nearly 2 months now. That’s not new planting.

OK what about courgettes, tomatoes, squash and new rose trees? Seriously I’m asking your advice. My research says to water when the first few inches are dry and that’s happening every day or two for me right now (SE)

Don’t ask a teen! I once went away and asked my teen to water the teeny tiny little cherry tomato on the patio table.

I came home and it was as dead as a dodo. “Why didn’t you water it” I asked, reasonably.

Teen looked smug. “ The day you left they announced a hosepipe ban.”

Theyd never heard of a watering can?

Watering cans were available. As were measuring jugs, mugs, washing up bowls, buckets, cupped hands, empty milk cartons, water bottles etc etc.

Teen thought they were saving the planet by abiding by the hosepipe ban.

You were trying to be helpful, not rude.

That said I'm a gardener and I don't know any gardeners who have enough slack at this time of year to drop tools to go round and water someone's large garden every day for a fortnight...especially someone who wasn't a regular client.

Even in this heat you don't need to water whole gardens every day. Pots every day or every other day, new/vulnerable plants every two/three days and established plants only when they look like they need it.

I think it’s absolutely fine to say you can’t do it and very helpful to give her your gardener’s number. It’s all very well for your parents to think you should do it - but if they have the time perhaps they should offer!

Apart from the time it takes people can be very fussy - how often you do it, how much you give, time of day you do it etc. Plus as others have said if there is a hose pipe ban it could take ages. As PP have said they need to set up a watering system or use a teenager and pay them. We have a few pots of herbs and I moved them to the shade and paid the girl next door to water them.

I do pots every other day and they look fabulous. They’ve coped well with the hot weather. I’ve got loads, it takes ages.

That’s crazy.

Tomatoes need lots of water. If you want to water them everyday then knock yourself out. That said there’s plenty tomatoes on the allotment that are doing fine in the ground where it’s very dry.

Squash and courgettes don’t need that much water.

The issue you have is if you have watered like this the whole time then your roots will be on the surface. So they will freak out if they are used to wet and it’s no longer wet. You will have to wean them off.

Roses. I just planted 3 climbers three weeks ago. I watered well once when I put them in, and probably once every week so far. Once rain returns I won’t water them anymore. And next year not at all.

It depends what type of gardener you want to be. If you enjoy watering all the time then do it. I am lazy so I am not doing that. I have a set of hydrangeas out the front of my house in a rain shadow, north facing bone dry soil. I put them in 4 years ago and they looked half dead for the last 4 years. Kept cutting them back to remove the dead. This year they finally have their roots somewhere good. They look fantastic. Haven’t watered them once. If I had, then they would need watering forever.

So yes stop pampering the rose. Might look like crap. Cut it back and let it grow sustainably.

OK thanks. They’re in very large (65L) terracotta pots so will need more than once a week I fear. But noted to cut down to maybe twice a week.

The tomatoes are also in pots and are thriving as you said. Courgette and squash haven’t given me anything useful yet. But I only started overwatering (I suppose) a few weeks ago when DH got too unwell to sort the garden. So I’ll cut back on those too.

thanks!

Ive got a tiny bit of lawn and quite a few plants in pots. Because I am a night owl my neighbours never see me using the hosepipe to water the garden because its pretty enclosed. I rarely go to bed before 3 am. Ideal time to water a garden.

I'd have been tempted to give her some advice on drought tolerant planting! Seriously! People need to stop trying to have 1950s style gardens and adapt their planting to changing climate conditions.

Absolutely fine to say no and recommend your Gardener.

We are paying our neighbours son cash for looking after our garden for a week in September.

2 weeks and a large complicated garden is a huge comittment and responsibility.

Weve actually made our garden very Mediterranean with drought tolerant plants and avoided pots just for this reason.
We just happen to have a few new climbers that need a bit of extra care this year hence asking neighbour.

Really UK Gardener's need to start planning drought tolerant gardens as it isnt going to get any better with climate change.

Hell - no way would I agree to water a neighbours garden for one week that alone three weeks and husband and I are retired, but way to busy to spare all that time for a neighbours garden. Likewise I would not dream of asking a neighbour to water our plants. When we had a big garden and used to go away for holidays, we would pay a friend to come around and housesit and care for our two dogs. I can’t believe that people can be so cheeky to even ask. Perhaps your parents might want to come around and do the watering for your neighbours??

An enormous ask and not one I would dream of entertaining.
I am away for 3 weeks and have someone doing it for us, a paid teenager.
We actually gathered the pots together to make it more manageable.
A drenching every second day.
God knows what we will go back to.
This weather is hard on gardens.
I cannot get excited about it.

Offering a number was kind.
Ignore your parents.

I'm not encouraging shallow roots, @Indaloo . I soak pots properly when I water them.

Plants are different. Their needs and their situations are different. A one-size-fits-all mantra is bound to be an oversimplification - a bit like trying to make a horse drink like a camel so that it can be ridden through a desert.

Some plants like to be free-draining, for example, so that they can drink and dry, drink and dry on a fairly rapid schedule.

Watering every day does encourage shallow roots.

Yes of course plants are different. They are also bloody good at surviving and if you raise them tough they will be tough plants.

My neighbours asked me to water every afternoon for two weeks over one Christmas. I really hate standing there with a hose watering. It was one of my chores as a child. Apart from hating the activity, I don't know how much or how little or for how long to water anything, and I don't want to be responsible for a plant's or whole garden's ill-health or death and they had a lot of ferns. Plus the thought of being around to do it every afternoon was so constricting.

I panicked and said I couldn't as I was going away. They were frosty with me for the next couple of years after that, until I moved to a new area. It was very uncomfortable.

But the friends they got to do it came maybe twice in two weeks and it was a really hot summer. God knows how the garden out back looked after that.