Simon Lock on why watering won’t scupper his holiday plans.
Having done most of the hard graft in spring, summer in the garden is hopefully a time for less working and more eating. Now is just a question of putting the icing on the cake. Pinching, pruning and pest control make up the majority of jobs, making sure all that hard work doesn’t go to waste. But although life gets simpler over summer you can’t take your eye off the ball. Watering can be a daily requirement, something that can seriously meddle with summer plans.
So, not one to let a scruffy, shoebox-sized garden get in the way of a few days on the beach, I decide to take off. But rather than leaving the fate of my veggies with friends or neighbours, I’m taking a leaf out of my brother’s book this year.
Living the good life in southern Spain, he regularly decamps to the UK leaving his borehole, solar pump and series of digital timers looking after his impressive range of aubergine, peppers, fruit trees and others. If big bro can leave his sun baked hillside, from which you can see the hilltops of Africa on a clear day, for three full weeks, I can surely leave my shady corner of Bristol for a long weekend.
Despite being the son of a farmer who saw the relationship between modern technology and agriculture as akin to a scandalous affair, I invest in a battery operated, automatic watering system (www.hozelock.com). Sounds fancy, but it boils down to a small timer between outdoor tap and a length of 13mm tube snaking its way through the greenery. Despite my reservations, in testing the system performs well. Ensuring that, no matter the size of the heat wave, my few days by the sea won’t be spent worrying about wilting greens.
Simon Lock