Last month, I was away for quite a while, and I instructed my ever trusting maid to water the plants. I specifically instructed her to water the plants everyday at the earliest possible time. After a week, when I came back, a number of plants had died!
I check with her and she says that she has been watering the plants everyday. My curious mind wouldn’t leave it at that. I was furious as well as upset that she did not water the plants and the plants died in Chennai heat!
The next time I went away, I did not want to trust her, but I did not have a choice. Then my plant expert (aka dear mom) suggested I place some sort of a drip system so that the plants get continuous water and they survive the heat. So teamed up with my son, we placed a transparent bag full of water with a few pricks under the bag, so the water can drip out and placed them near the roots of all the plants (It was a time consuming job)
My dear hubby returned a few days ahead of me, saw that some plants got the water and some didn’t (somehow the water refused to drip after a few times, which I couldn’t test before leaving), ended up having some tired plants. But all the plants survived!
This intrigued me more! How can some plants that received water everyday die, while plants that did not even receive water survive? And I realised it a few days later. My maid comes in at around 1, post noon, turns on the water and waters the plants! Now, imagine the heat in Chennai. The water and the pipes get heated up in the sun and the only water you can have the entire afternoon and early evening is the piping hot water from the tanks! The plants should have been burnt due to the heat!
And this is exactly why, I can never trust giving this job that requires endless love on the plants to anyone that is not quite there! An expensive lesson learnt at the cost of a huge number of plants! And my strawberry plant died and my Hydrangea is in its last days.
Nuances of an everyday gardener 