I have never actually washed my garden before. It’s the ground you usually water, not the leaves. But the builders next door send over such a dust-storm that after weeks without rain every plant was grey with grime. I’m sure it was stopping them growing; flowers were fewer and fewer – and sadly dingy.
So I got out the hose and sprayed the whole place; drenched it all over – an hour’s work the other night. How effective my artificial rain was I shall never know; it’s been stair-rodding down all day.
Later: how does steady rain have a totally different effect from watering? You can fill pots to the brim regularly, but the day after a downpour they look quite different, more buoyant, ready to perform. Is it the atmosphere, the pressure, the humidity?
