Clippings No.7 How Not to Raise Mollycoddled Plants
A tale of shallow roots, hosepipe habits, and a case for watering deeply. Plants need less pampering and more tough love.
The Problem with ‘Little and Often’
Drifting around in the gardening ether, there is plenty of well-meaning but overly cautious, time-consuming advice. And I’ve been wondering whether this over-complicated, ‘needy’ watering simply creates weak, shallow-rooted, mollycoddled plants? Not exactly the toughened, grizzled champions you need in a world of heatwaves and downpours.
Deep Roots, Strong Plants
If you water little and often (repeatedly), as some suggest, roots can grow laterally, staying shallow, chasing scant droplets that barely soak into the soil. For some plants, this isn’t a problem.
Take Lavender with its lateral roots, evolved to creep out just under the surface to soak up any moisture available (even dew). Perhaps a good reason to plant more Mediterranean types? Well, only if you have well-drained soil, of course, and your garden doesn’t flood.
But for most garden plants, that would normally search deeper, they’re exposed to extremes when the next scorching heatwave arrives. Surface roots are the first to suffer: baked, withered, and often lost altogether, leaving the plant struggling to access water from under-developed roots deeper down. They’ll wither and droop, telling you in no uncertain terms they’re in desperate need of a drink.
So, if you are going to water, make it count. Give plants a proper drink. A long, deep soak right at the base. Encourage those roots to dive deep. Deeper roots can access a wider range of nutrients, contributing to overall plant health and vigour. So, leave the hose running gently and direct the flow to the roots, not the leaves. Give yourself the time to do it once a week, and it will save you time overall, once you’ve added all those sporadic sprinklings together.
Sponge Logic
If the ground is parched and cracking, don’t rush. Spray around the area first to moisten the surface, let it settle in for a few minutes, then go in again. Moist soil is far more absorbent than dry, baked earth.
Think of it like a sponge: once primed, it draws water deeper, allowing it to percolate slowly down to the roots where it’s really needed. It takes a little patience, but your plants will thank you with stronger growth from deeper roots, bringing greater resilience.
A Word on Spring Watering
Autumn and winter will leave the soil saturated (at least it does here in the UK). Come spring, leave your plants alone and let them get on with it. The deep waterings will have promoted deeper roots, and they’ll cope better with the coming season.
When the Skies Open
Now, let’s flip it. Say we get a downpour, torrential rain and localised flooding, which are also more frequent these days. The surface becomes waterlogged, and most plants need both moisture and air around their roots to survive.
Without air, roots rot and die, quickly followed by the rest of the plant. This is why wisteria, lavender, and many Mediterranean herbs suffer so badly in prolonged wet weather. Their roots and crowns simply rot in stagnant soil.
The Mulch Advantage
That’s where mulching comes into its own. A good organic mulch doesn’t just conserve moisture, it also softens the impact of heavy rain. By promoting soil life that opens the soil structure, water filters slowly through and percolates down to where roots can use it, instead of turning the surface layer into a stagnant puddle or washing straight off onto your lawn or down the drain.
A Scene from the Village
Effective watering also brings certain advantages to the garden as a whole. Let me paint you a scene. Perhaps one you’re familiar with…
One of my neighbours enjoys a leisurely wander around his garden in the evening, usually dressed, although not always (don’t ask). Hose in hand, carefree, he joyously sprays water over everything in sight. Apparently, he needs a soundtrack to do this with.
He loves to soak the leaves: “They look better and must enjoy a refreshing splash after a hot day!” Why wouldn’t they? We do. He moves on, the water pattering against the fence… (I assume he’s washing down cobwebs). Then more leaves… then the fence again. Five minutes later, he’s winding the hose back onto its heavy-duty reel, job done. The back door shuts with a wallop and on goes the TV.
Splash and Spores
Several things happened here. Watering in the evening sounds like a good idea. The sun’s not beating down, so water can soak in without rapid evaporation, right? Not quite. Most of that (gleefully sprayed) water never reached the soil at all. It evaporated into the warm evening air.
What little did reach the ground quickly vanished, barely moistening the surface. Hardly enough to percolate to where it’s actually needed. Meanwhile, all those roots continue to grow a little closer to the surface, seeking moisture… only to be baked the following day.
And as my neighbour heads inside, the molluscs are just heading out. Slugs and snails emerge for a night of foliage feasting, and my neighbour (bless him) has obligingly moistened all the surfaces (even the fence) to make their journey so much easier. Producing sticky, slimy mucus takes energy, you see. In dry conditions, slugs follow the same trail as it's more efficient. But a nice damp path? Oh, the whole garden’s their oyster.
Inside, the telly’s now on. Outside, the leaves are still dripping. They might look refreshed, but the plant’s ability to transpire (to absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen) is reduced as it naturally slows to a crawl during the night. If it’s not transpiring, the plant is not drawing up water.
The air is warm (consistently above 10℃ ) and fungal spores are floating about, looking for a soggy landing pad. They’re species-specific, but with so many wet leaves on offer, it’s not long before Rosy Rust or Blighty McBlight Face finds a new home with perfect conditions: warmth, stillness, and moisture.
A few nights later, my jovial neighbour’s out again, bouncing around his garden, but the hose is left behind. This time, he’s wielding a garden sprayer with real menace. He douses practically every plant with fungicide and pesticide, and then throws slug pellets around like confetti.
It all sounds laughably far-fetched, I know. But I could give you his address. Because, sadly, it’s very real.
Gardening Tough (With Exceptions)
Thankfully, in the broad scope of gardening, things are shifting. More gardeners (and the gardening media) are leaning toward natural balance: wildlife-friendly practices, water capture, and horticultural climate resilience.
I think I’ve nudged my own garden in that direction, almost by accident, because I like growing plants hard. I'm not running a plant day spa. I water them in when they’re planted. Maybe spot-water a couple more times. Then let them get on with it.
This way, you force them to grow their roots deep, to hunt for moisture and nutrients. In doing so, they toughen up. They become more drought-tolerant. More independent. More robust. It’s also another good reason to ease off the fertiliser and break their dependency on you. Show them some tough love.
Let Nature Lead
The no-dig approach helps too. By leaving the soil structure intact and preserving the fabulously complex network of mycorrhizae and microscopic life (from worms to microbes), everything just works better. As it should. After all, by layering on mulch, we’re simply replicating nature’s autumn leaf fall.
Water soaks through compost mulch, flowing down trillions of tiny holes in the soil, and eventually reaches the roots below… rather than hitting a crust of dry, cracked soil and running off.
Drought or Downpour
Case in point: it’s been a particularly dry spring in the south of England. The sunniest spring (43% above average) since sunshine records began in 1910. The warmest since 1884. The driest in over a hundred years! (Met Office1)
My parched Cottage Garden has had just two waterings this year, and those were only for the spring plantings. The Flower Garden tells a similar story. Initial waterings for new additions, one deep drink for the roses, and that’s it.
Instead of keeping some early-flowering perennials limping through the drought, looking utterly dreadful, I’ll cut them right back to the ground. Brutal, perhaps, but they’ll bounce back with fresh growth in a few weeks.
But, as is so often the case now in the UK, the rain does arrive and usually in dramatic, torrential downpours. That slow, steady rain we all yearn for seems to be a thing of the past. It’s either drought or deluge.
Still, with those heavy rains, everything bounces back to full vigour. Lush, upright, cheerful. All without me lifting a hose. There’s never even a puddle. The well-mulched beds soak it all in, holding the water where it’s needed instead of letting it rush off to the nearest drain.
A Rose-Tinted Weakness
For the sake of absolute honesty, though, I do have one soft spot. A sentimental weakness. The English shrub roses in the Cottage Garden. It’s a brutally dry site. The border is sunny (the only one that is), but it’s also the fastest-draining spot in the garden. It’s edged by railway sleepers, drains like a colander, and competes with mature ash and birch trees for every drop.
In hindsight, I might not have planted roses there. But I love them. They’re one of my few vices, so they’re staying. And to help them cope, I did lay an irrigation line. But does this single act of mollycoddling cancel out the rest of my efforts toward resilient gardening? I don’t think so. You don’t have to be purist or partisan. Every little helps.
Final Thoughts
Watering isn’t just a chore. It’s a quiet conversation between you and your plants, and sometimes, not saying much at all is exactly what they need.
Water deep, and less often. Water in the morning if you can. Let roots grow downward, not just outwards. Observe your plants, listen to the soil, trust your instincts. When in doubt, leave the hose be.
They’ll thank you for it.
Double record breaker: Spring 2025 is warmest and sunniest on UK record: https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/about-us/news-and-media/media-centre/weather-and-climate-news/2025/double-record-breaker-spring-2025-is-warmest-and-sunniest-on-uk-record
Thank you once again for an informative and entertaining read. All very useful tips, thank you Elliott.
Just checking - I’m right am I that this doesn’t apply to pots? I have a lot of them and assume they’ll need regular watering.