NOT MANY of us have the leisure to water an entire allotment every day, and — given years of systemic underinvestment by shareholder-owned water companies — we’re all likely to see restrictions on use before the end of the summer. As Nye Bevan said, priorities are the religion of socialism, and the same applies in gardening.

A general hierarchy of need would have perennial plants at the bottom and anything grown in containers, or in a greenhouse, at the top. That’s not to say that a perennial plant won’t benefit from watering, but rather that an annual may die without it. And if the edible part of a plant is very juicy, like a radish, tomato or cucumber, it stands to reason that, as a rule of thumb, that plant needs more water.

Pots and other containers which have dried out completely need rehydrating from above and below. Stand them in a few inches of water (a kids’ paddling pool is perfect) for a couple of hours and water the surface of the compost using a watering can with the rose on it.