Watering the garden

Watering can be a real chore at this time of year – so hand the work over to one of our automatic watering systems.

There are lots of different ways you can set up your watering to deliver water regularly without having to spend hours behind a watering can. Drop by the garden centre here in Pickering and browse our range to find out which suits your needs best.

Probably the most straightforward to use are self-watering pots and planters with in-built irrigation reservoirs. Just plant into the top and fill the reservoir, and water is delivered gradually as required.

If you grow lots of plants in containers you may prefer to set up a pot watering kit, available for 10, 20 or more containers. Water is delivered via drippers set into each pot, with a timer you can set to water whenever it’s needed.

And for greenhouses and the open garden, there are full-scale drip irrigation systems, plugged into the mains or via a pump in the water butt. It’s an easy way to deliver a steady supply of water to vegetables and flower borders and there are easy-to-assemble kits available right here in the garden centre.

Choose from a leaky hose, connected to the tap via short lengths of conventional hose, or a pipe-and-dripper system. Lay out your system first and trim to length to make sure it’ll reach the plants that need watering. If using drippers, press the pipe ends onto the peg outlets and place the pegs in the soil close to the plants.

Finally, fit a timer to the delivery tap and set it to the desired frequency. Keep an eye on how much water is being delivered for the first week, so you can adjust the timing as necessary until exactly the right amount of water is delivered each day.