@AnniD my father would never water potatoes, his reasoning was once you start you can't stop and he just didn't have the time. ( we could only use watering cans on his Allotments). I do water potatoes now only because we have had so little rain, but I can use a hose and I don't grow as many. I recall Monty saying in the past that in a normal summer he rarely goes more than 2 weeks without some rain so, he probably has been caught out by the exceptionally dry year. We all get it wrong sometimes. The tops on my Charlotte have dried like his but my yield is much better.
As someone living and gardening in one of the wetter parts of the country, my mantra in dry spells is
"I'd rather carry watering cans than sandbags any day."
I'd rather lose plants to drought than have my topsoil and mulch scoured away by floods following days and days of heavy rain, leaving behind a vast seedbed of nettle, dock, bramble and worse from upstream. In dry spells I water sparingly using a can, never a hosepipe, usually just anything planted in the current year, directing water solely to the rootball area. During this heatwave some plants have suffered, but most will recover. I never water potatoes so am not expecting a good crop, it was dry at the crucial time last year too so the crop was less than usual.
In a really hot dry summer (for this area) the plants in my garden look like the illustrations in magazines, or like photos posted on here by gardeners in the drier parts of the country. Upright and full of bloom. In a wet summer everything seems horizontal, weighed down by the weight of rain, broken over any supports, a banquet for slugs and disease. I enter October still mentally awaiting summer....
But that's life! I will try to adjust to more frequent flood events (difficult) and others to more frequent prolonged and severe droughts (difficult.)
I hope we find that the plant losses are less than feared, and I wish steady but gentle rain on all those still without.
Monty did say that they never water the veg garden as it would take all the spare time they use to water the huge pot collection.
I quite liked the show, nice to see Tatton park we've been a couple of times and really liked it. I do like Nick Bailey' style and how he knows the real details of the plants.
Think they film in Monty's garden 2 weeks in advance, he did mention in an interview that they don't write dates on labels for the show as they aren't current to going on tv. Maybe next week we'll see his garden flagging
One odd thing is though I recall Monty saying a couple of weeks ago that it is worth watering potatoes when they are in flower as it's after that the tubers really start to get to size. ( This is absolutely correct). They then showed him watering with a can. It must have just been a demo for the programme. I find he does contradict himself like this sometimes.
One odd thing is though I recall Monty saying a couple of weeks ago that it is worth watering potatoes when they are in flower as it's after that the tubers really start to get to size. ( This is absolutely correct). They then showed him watering with a can. It must have just been a demo for the programme. I find he does contradict himself like this sometimes.
Monty is quite open about how he shows things differently on gardeners world to how he does stuff for himself. He always says about feeding tomatoes on the show however he doesn't feed his own tomatoes. He did say it was the best time to water potatoes not that he'd be putting loads on his. Think somethings are shown on show as they are the accepted method. By the way I'm not advocating either way, I listened to a podcast interview and he did speak about the tomato feeding thing and it's also on his website too.
" Monty shows how to deal with drought, takes fuchsia cuttings and demonstrates how to summer prune fruit trees.
Advolly Richmond reveals the important role that trees have played in gardens throughout history on a visit to Longleat. There's also a catch-up with three sisters in Dorset who developed a love of gardening during lockdown - this time, they plant up two beds, one for sun and one for shade.
Also, there's a look at a national collection of heleniums in Berwickshire, and more Gardeners’ World viewers share what they’ve been getting up to in their gardens. "
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I do water potatoes now only because we have had so little rain, but I can use a hose and I don't grow as many.
I recall Monty saying in the past that in a normal summer he rarely goes more than 2 weeks without some rain so, he probably has been caught out by the exceptionally dry year. We all get it wrong sometimes. The tops on my Charlotte have dried like his but my yield is much better.
That garden in Bath looked so lush and green @Crazybeelady , it was so disheartening when l looked out at mine after the programme.
"I'd rather carry watering cans than sandbags any day."
I'd rather lose plants to drought than have my topsoil and mulch scoured away by floods following days and days of heavy rain, leaving behind a vast seedbed of nettle, dock, bramble and worse from upstream.
In dry spells I water sparingly using a can, never a hosepipe, usually just anything planted in the current year, directing water solely to the rootball area. During this heatwave some plants have suffered, but most will recover. I never water potatoes so am not expecting a good crop, it was dry at the crucial time last year too so the crop was less than usual.
In a really hot dry summer (for this area) the plants in my garden look like the illustrations in magazines, or like photos posted on here by gardeners in the drier parts of the country. Upright and full of bloom.
In a wet summer everything seems horizontal, weighed down by the weight of rain, broken over any supports, a banquet for slugs and disease. I enter October still mentally awaiting summer....
But that's life! I will try to adjust to more frequent flood events (difficult) and others to more frequent prolonged and severe droughts (difficult.)
I hope we find that the plant losses are less than feared, and I wish steady but gentle rain on all those still without.
I quite liked the show, nice to see Tatton park we've been a couple of times and really liked it. I do like Nick Bailey' style and how he knows the real details of the plants.
Think they film in Monty's garden 2 weeks in advance, he did mention in an interview that they don't write dates on labels for the show as they aren't current to going on tv. Maybe next week we'll see his garden flagging
" Monty shows how to deal with drought, takes fuchsia cuttings and demonstrates how to summer prune fruit trees.
Advolly Richmond reveals the important role that trees have played in gardens throughout history on a visit to Longleat. There's also a catch-up with three sisters in Dorset who developed a love of gardening during lockdown - this time, they plant up two beds, one for sun and one for shade.
Also, there's a look at a national collection of heleniums in Berwickshire, and more Gardeners’ World viewers share what they’ve been getting up to in their gardens. "