Blog - BlueWorld Gardener Community Area

Garden Centre

Friday, May 11, 2007

Spring in is the air ...

But water is on the ground! What happened to the sunshine? A couple of days ago we were basking, now we’re floating!

So this might seem like a very odd time to be inviting you to consider hoses and accessories but on the other hand, this is the perfect time to do some of the fundamental things relating to water that will improve your garden no end.

First, walk around your garden and see where the water is pooling and gathering – if it’s on the flowerbeds, those are the places that need to be built up, or have the soil improved to give better drainage. Apart from anything else, water that falls regularly on your precious plants will damage their growth and can kill them. If rather than having problems with your flower beds, you find the water is collecting on the paths or patios, decide whether you need to relay those areas on sand, and slightly elevated, or just buy at mop or squeegee to push the water out of the way whenever this happens.

Second, look at where rain water drips and descends – you can consider placing water butts in these areas for use in later, drier periods, or you can run guttering along areas that drip, like sheds, garages and gazebos to collect the water and direct it into butts.

We all know that rainwater is much better for our plants than tap water, and of course it’s better for the environment if we recycle this gift from the skies instead of using mains water which depletes the reservoirs and leads to – yes, you’ve guessed it – hosepipe bans! You can get systems that run rainwater through pumps so that it is under pressure and can be used in a variety of ways or just use drip irrigation to water your garden.

Finally, while the weather is so rotten outdoors, you can sit in the shed and work through the final part of your ‘water’ strategy, which is making sure your hose doesn’t leak and has all the attachments and nozzles you need. Consider getting a coiled hose tidy or some sprinkler systems to allow you to spend less time on mundane tasks and more on the valuable and rewarding ones, like weeding, cutting flowers for the house or just sitting in the garden with a long cool drink – assuming, of course, that it ever stops raining long enough!

Labels: garden tips, garden tools

The All Seasons Gardener at 6:41 AM

3 Comments:

At May 17, 2007 12:50 AM , Anonymous said...: Dear Garden Lady,

Help! My neighbor runs a cafe and record store on the first floor of our apartment building in Brooklyn. The cafe just opened. The neighbor had a few trays of wheat grass sitting on the counter. I asked what that was for, since I am extremely allergic to wheat grass. He stated his plan to plant wheat grass in window boxes along the 15 feet of fence that leads up to my doorway. I mentioned my allergy and he said, Let's discuss it later. I wonder if you might have any suggestions of alternatives to wheatgrass for this situation. The first thing I thought to suggest are succulents, green, low in allergens and probably easier to keep than wheatgrass, anyway.

Best wishes,
Shelley F Marlowe
At May 17, 2007 8:16 AM , The All Seasons Gardener said...: Well, this is really interesting, because people who have allergic responses to wheat and wheat products are usually reacting to gluten which is a protein found in the grains of wheat, barley and rye. Wheat grass is completely different to wheat grain in that it is a green vegetable which contains no gluten. However, you may be reacting to the pollen it produces.

Fans of wheatgrass claim that eating the plant can improve the digestive system, prevent cancer, diabetes and heart disease, cure constipation, detoxify heavy metals from the bloodstream, cleanse the liver, prevent hair loss and help to make menopause more manageable – wow! Sadly, no medical nor scientific evidence exists to support these claims, although there is a great deal of anecdotal evidence and there are many people who swear by it in the USA, it’s just starting to cross to the UK – so watch out for supermodels chewing wheatgrass salads in chi-chi London restaurants!

Depending on how sheltered your street is, you can try some of the following – not all are hardy all year round in your zone, the azaleas for example would need to be wrapped in fleece for the winter, but then, his wheatgrass isn’t going to be winter hardy either.

To mitigate the effects of different forms of pollution you should grow:

for foam insulation and synthetic fibres - chrysanthemum
for plywood and particle board emissions – azalea and dieffenbachia
for water repellents, damp proofing and bitumen based paints - mother-in-law tongue
for plastics - gerbera
for detergents - English ivy (hedera)

Spider plants clear more ambient pollution than any other indoor/outdoor plant that NASA tested to produce this list!

Succulents and houseleeks are easy to grow and as you say, low allergen, other plants that rarely cause allergies because they don’t pollinate via flowers are lithops (living stones) and airplants. However, if your neighbour really wants to improve the environment as well as the appearance of the area, he should invest in some sedum matting – the kind used for roof-gardens – because it is designed to have a high pollution fighting matrix and it actually fights global warming. See here - http://www.cityfarmer.org/greenroofs.html - for information about how city planting can help save the planet.
At May 17, 2007 4:23 PM , Anonymous said...: You are a genius! Thank you, Ms. Gardener.