one final thing........

What is the last job you do when you leave your garden? I'm talking about a job, because I guess we all give our gardens 'a good coat of looking at' as they say.

My final job is an important one in readiness for the next day - I fill my watering cans. I do try and use rainwater collected in waterbutts, but have to resort to tap water as well.

Now tap water is good. I drink it all the time, but it's not quite good enough for my plants!

You see, it's too cold for one thing. I never gave my small children cold showers and I don't intend to do the same with my young plants. By drawing a watering can of water and letting it stand until next day, the water gently rises in temperature. Tomorrow those plants will have a lovely warm drink. There'll be no ice cold deluge that shocks the plants and stops growth.

But there's more. Our drinking water has chemicals added to it to make it drinkable. They are dissolved into the water and may not be what your young plants want. Even your dogs tooth violets don't need fluoride! So, I let the water stand for as long as I can, so that the impurities can dissipate into the air.

Next day, the water will be just right.

hanging around

Over the past few years, English houses have become much more colourful in the summer with the fashion of using hanging baskets.

There have been hanging baskets and pots outside houses for many years, but now, they have become very common.

Holidays to Brittany, France, two decades ago were a revelation, with all villages decked out in marvellous red, ivy-leaved geraniums.

Our English tradition is to go for much more diverse planting. Here geraniums, surfinias and a host of other baby plants grow on in the greenhouse.

The advent of the dripping water systems on a timer has made life so much easier too, as have little innovations such as moisture retaining granules.

We have stuck to our principles and used peat free compost. It doesn't retain the water or nutrients as well and so our baskets may struggle as the season goes on.

Already out are patio runner beans and strawberries.

Soon to join them will be tumbling cherry tomatoes.

All we then will need is a little summer warmth. I've got the heating on today!

The rain gain

Holidays are here, and we're off to Germany and Sweden for nearly two weeks!The blog will have a holiday too.

Keeping plants watered is always a problem - especially during holidays. Our ample rains have filled our water barrels and I have set up an irrigation system to ensure that all hanging baskets, patio pots and greenhouse plants are watered automatically. I have been using timers and thin plastic tubing to keep plants properly watered for a number of years. The 'little and often' dripping system is less wasteful and more effective for the plants and more efficient than trying to hoist watering cans above head height only to see the water pour off the baked and root packed compost onto the irrigator below.

Container grown plants need regular feeding. I use home made liquid feeds and supplement the automatic watering with these .

Here, we have attached a timer to one of the water butts so that our greenhouse plants can be watered during our absence.

The hens will be looking after our son!