BAD GARDENER CONFESSIONS: WONKY WATERING

It is stacking up to be one of those summers where it feels like the hose is another bodily appendage. Already we’ve had periods of heavy rain followed but long stretches of windy, hot weather that dries out the ground quickly. It’s been years since we’ve had a summer where I never wanted to see the hose again and it’s amazing how quickly I forgot about proper watering.

Plants are starting to show signs of stress and that’s no good when it’s just officially become summer. Just last night I looked at the deck planters that I just planted (the ones that I’m not at all happy with), and the creeping Jenny looked like it had one root in the grave.

Fortunately, plants are more forgiving than not, and I gave the planter a proper watering this morning and I’m sure all will be well by the end of the day. Most plants are like that. The impatiens I planted in various places looked fully dead the other day but all perked up nicely.

Of course I can’t continue this horrible gardener behavior. Plants can only take so much stress before they completely give up the ghost. I’m just at a horrible place in the garden right now where I feel like nothing is done to my satisfaction. I really need to take two or three days off of work to just pound it out. I bet I said that last year too. Also, that’s not at all in the cards at this time.

So I have been making the best of it, and fine-tuning my one-handed watering (while the other hand holds a glass of wine, of course). I think I’ll revisit some of my favorite watering tools on the blog soon because I have a feeling it’s going to be that kind of year. But tell me, do you have any great watering tool finds for me? I’m always looking for the next new great thing.

Don’t forget: Tomorrow is the last day to enter to win the super cool Sneeboer Royal Dutch Hand Hoe from Garden Tool Company.

5 Responses

  1. My favorite watering tool is something I bought from Martha!! years ago and love. A quirky thing that I will try to take a photo of rather than describing it. Looking forward to seeing your tools. You are so good at finding the best.

  2. It has been dry!!! I came home from being away for three days and it looked like the entire garden was dying!!! The grass was brown, even the hostas were limp. I immediately got the sprinklers going and they've revived. As for the planters – my hubby usually does them. That's a blessing as I'm terrible at remembering to water them. I'm looking at the forecast and there's still no rain in sight. The poor farmers!!

  3. Well I've been awake since 2 because we are being pelted with 3-4 inches of rain and severe storms so I might not need to water tomorrow. Watering my plants is my favorite part of the day but it might just be that my life is boring. Although this year I crowded all my annuals into two and two only areas and that makes watering much easier. No dragging the hose to the end of the earth for one f***ing petunia like I usually have to.

  4. Flexzilla hoses are indispensable in the garden — I'll never go back to the stiff kind that constantly kink and flatten and crack! We finally got 2" of rain last night after nearly a month without much (and after planting many new trees and shrubs and transplanting a ton of plants this spring), so I strongly empathize with your watering pains. Hope things improve for you! -Beth

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