What  do nursery owners do on hot days? The main thing is the watering which is boring and repetitive but obviously has to be done. We do it by dragging round a hose with a lance on the end. We don’t have a sprinkling system because we’re on a water meter and we like to water the plants not the paths. The trouble is that its always difficult to do it evenly; some plants definitely dry out quicker than others and its becomes quite an art to remember which is which. Generally we share the job and I suppose it takes between 2-3 hours to do everything.

When I’m watering I notice many things that need doing such as weeding, trimming, potting on, needing more of a particular plant. Unfortunately, by the time I’ve finished I’ve forgotten most of it, but it is a way of keeping a check on all the stock.

When the job is done we can then relax, find a shady place, read the paper and only emerge when there is a customer.