Gardening

Grow better plants while saving water

5 top tips to save water

Grow better plants with Janet Manning, a leading horticultural scientist.

Expert advice on saving water in the garden

How much watering plants need and easy ways to use water butts.

Watering - saving you time

Use a water butt

Rain water is great for your garden as it is softer, contains nitrates, and has less salts and chemicals than tap water. The average roof collects 85,000 litres of rain a year, enough to fill a water butt 450 times!

A terracotta pot in the ground filled with water

Make an olla

A terracotta olla (spanish for pot) is an ancient way of storing water in the soil for plants to absorb.

Water your plants in the morning

The morning is the best time for watering because that’s when your plants and soil are ready to take in water

An adult and child using a watering can together

Use a watering can instead of a hose

A hose can use enough water to fill twelve baths every hour! So use a watering can when you can. Garden sprinklers and hosepipes left running can use between 500 and 1,000 litres of water an hour.

Your climate-resilient garden

It’s tree planting season

By planting in winter, the roots can find the water they need, rather than rely on your watering.

A person planting a plan into the ground

Plant bare-root plants

Bare-root plants are grown in open ground, and if you plant them in winter they can establish root growth, needing less watering come the spring.

Use a cover crop for healthy soil

Cover crops conserve water, reduce the surface temperature, help the rain to infiltrate the ground, and maintain a healthy population of soil microorganisms.

A garden with layers of shrubs and trees

Layer your plants

Plants of different heights shade each other and draw on different levels of moisture in the soil.

Make the most of the rain with healthy soil

A close up person wearing gardening gloves holding chunky chippings

Use mulch to shade your soil

An organic mulch such as wood chip, straw, grass clippings or sheep wool will insulate the roots and keep moisture in the soil.

A close up of a person wearing gardening gloves holding soil in a pot

Use peat-free compost

Peat is better left in the ground to store carbon and protect biodiversity. Find out how changing to peat-free compost may need a change in how you water.

A close up of health soil in the sunshine

Think of your soil as a reservoir

To help get a better feel for the amount of water needed for your plants, think of your soil like a reservoir.

Make your own compost to keep your soil moist

Used as mulch, compost helps soil retain more moisture by shading and cooling the roots, and helping the rain get in.

Hollow tining your lawn

Hollow tining or coring is the removal of cores from the lawn, and allows the soil to more easily absorb water

Help your plants cope in hot weather

Train your plants to be drought athletes

Keeping your plants really well watered all of the time just encourages them to need more water. Reduce the amount of water you use, without causing your plants to wilt, and you’ll train them to be drought athletes.

Protect plants from the heat

You can put up a sunshade over your plants, move containers into a shadier spot, push containers together so they shade each other slightly, or throw a light fabric over them.

Stop watering your lawn

Wait for the rain to water your lawn. It’s ok to let your grass go brown during dry spells. It will bounce back as soon as it rains again.