How often to water plants?

[sahs1969]

Hi,

I am the very proud owner of a lovely new garden with some lovely plants/flowers etc.
Just wandered how often I should be watering them-I have a few in pots and hanging baskets and lots in flowerbeds/rockery?
I do the hanging baskets daily but how about the rest?
Thanks
x

I do hanging baskets daily, pots every other day, and give the flower/veg beds a really good soak twice a week, when it is hot/dry weather (unless it rains a lot!)

It is better to really soak the beds a couple of times a week rather than give them a 'sprinkle' daily, because if they get a good soak it encourages deeper root growth, which helps the plants go longer between watering (if they just have a little water more often it encourages surface roots to grow, which are more susceptible (sp?) to drought). HTH

I'm not kind to my garden and don't water things at all once they are in and established in the ground.

Established plants in the ground - never!

Anything in pots, every couple of days if it's dry.

Anything new in the ground - daily for the first week or so if it hasn't rained, then less often over time, depending on what sort of thing it is, but after a few weeks probably none.

As magpie says, give them a thorough watering when you do it, as the water will go deeper down and the roots will grow down too, instead of lots of shallow roots through the top of the soil which dries out quickest.

I'd agree totally with AMumInScotland.

A lot of it is down to 'right plant, right place', though - if you have plants that are suitable for your conditions, they'll take much less work looking after than if you've picked something that is adapted to another climate altogether.

Another thing to think about is the type of water. I've noticed that since using rain water my garden is looking amazing and I 'feed' the pots with coffee and tea dregs plus water every week.

every evening in this heat, houseplants weekly in summer