Pottering alphabet - A is for Automatic watering system

Inspired by this blog's alphabet of poulty tobacco cards, I've decided to do an alphabet of what's happening in the Potter garden.

Naturally enough, we'll start with A - for Automatic Watering System.

Timer setup for
watering system

A bit prosaic, I know, but that's what I happened to be doing this week.  At the bottom of the back garden (and top of the front garden, as it happens) we have a very old oak tree - at least around the same age as the house I think, or perhaps when the second owners bought the house (we are the third) which still puts the trees at somewhere between 70 and 100 years old.  They're impressively big, and provide lots of shade, but they also shade everything underneath from getting any water. The soil underneath is like concrete.

Consequently everything underneath the tree, which was supposed to screen us from the neighbors behind (and vice versa) is very stunted compared to the exact same species of plants on the other boundaries. I've been adding soil conditioner and handwatering, but progress is slow. So I finally got around to putting dripline under the oak tree and also around the fruit trees.  The water supply is our rain water tank, and there's a timer so they all get a regular drink once a week, at least during the hotter months.  We'll see in a couple of months if that helps the plants under to oak catch up a bit.