The past 2 or 3 years haven’t seen the sunniest of summers – but this year we have been promised an “Ice-cream Summer”. (Does this differ in anyway to the Barbeque Summer promised last year? – I digress). Initial indications are good as last weekend was a corker so fingers crossed we will have this promised Ice-cream Summer (I think that next year I will campaign for them to bring back Barbeque Summer)
You may or not remember that 2007 was a pretty good summer. Our very environmentally conscious customers were desperate for water butts – you may have been one of them. At Suttons we sometimes refer to the year of 2007 as “Water Butt Year”. Sales of water butts went through the roof to be completely honest we struggled to keep up with demand. They literally sold out all over the country (well, the good quality ones anyway). It was Chaos as we tried to get more water butts without sacrificing the quality that our customers should expect
I am about to purchase my first water butt and I had a look around for any tips – the Environment Agency website had the following advice for keeping your garden beautiful and productive in the summer with minimum usage of mains water.
- Water your garden in the cool of the early morning or evening. This will reduce the amount of water lost to evaporation.
- If you water plants and shrubs too often their roots will remain shallow, weakening the plant. Leave them alone until they show signs of wilting.
- Collect rainwater in water-butts and use a watering can instead of a hose. If you prefer to use a hosepipe, fit a trigger nozzle to control the flow.
- Regularly weed and hoe your garden, to ensure that watering helps plants and not weeds.
- Plant flowers and shrubs that thrive in hot and dry conditions such as thyme, evening primrose, rock rose, Californian poppy, pinks, lavender, buddleia and hebes.
- Mulches such as wood chips, bark and gravel help to prevent water evaporation and also suppress weed growth, saving you both water and time spent weeding.
- Lawns can survive long periods of dry weather if the grass is not cut too short. Even if the grass turns brown, it will quickly recover after a few days of rain.
- Garden sprinklers can use as much water in an hour as a family of four uses in a day. If you use a sprinkler, many water companies require you to have a water meter fitted.
Here’s to an Ice-Cream / Barbeque Summer! Happy Gardening!
Space Sava Water Butt 55 88 50 for £32.95
WaterSlice 57 68 81 for £6.95
