{"id":272,"date":"2025-10-13T11:09:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-13T08:09:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tapyom.com\/?p=272"},"modified":"2025-10-13T11:09:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-13T08:09:09","slug":"avoiding-gardening-mistakes-top-reasons-to-empty-your-watering-can","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tapyom.com\/?p=272","title":{"rendered":"Avoiding gardening mistakes: Top reasons to empty your watering can"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"cb-itemprop\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">The watering can is one of the most useful items in any gardener\u2019s tool shed. <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">While a hose, sprinkler, and in-ground system can all cover wider areas of the garden <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">faster<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">, a watering can is inexpensive, efficient, <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">functional<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> and perfect for watering small areas and container gardens.<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> As with all gardening tools, proper maintenance and storage are needed to keep your watering can in good shape. If you have been keeping water in your watering can, you might be inviting up storage problems.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><strong><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">The top reason to avoid leaving water in your watering can<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">You may not be aware of this common mistake, but most gardeners are guilty of keeping water in watering cans when not in use. It won\u2019t take long for problems to start building up, whether from disease, cold damage, or potential injury to visiting wildlife. These are a few reasons to avoid leaving any water in the watering cans:<\/span><\/p>\n<h4><strong><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">1. Minerals build up<\/span><\/strong><\/h4>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">One of the major reasons to always empty and rinse your watering can is that it can develop a mineral crust on the inside over time. Minerals that build up over time can cause damage to your plants. Water from the tap contains minerals. <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Although not <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">bad<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">, <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">the<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> minerals can <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">build up<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> on the inside of the can over time, <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">stockpiling<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> another problem for you and your plants.<\/span><\/p>\n<h4><strong><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">2. Stagnant water breeds unhealthy growth<\/span><\/strong><\/h4>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Your<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> garden is for growing, and you want your garden to <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">grow<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> the best plants <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">always<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">.<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> Stagnant, still water can be a breeding ground for all kinds of unwanted growth, and that can be harmful. Standing water in your watering cans may bring mosquitoes, which carry diseases that can affect you, your family, and lay eggs in the water. Standing water in the watering can also promote the growth of algae and mould, which might be harmful to your plants.<\/span><\/p>\n<h4><strong><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">3. Rusting<\/span><\/strong><\/h4>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Stagnant water is particularly a problem for metal watering cans. If you have a metal watering can, rust is an obvious issue. <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Leaving water too long and too often <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">in your metal watering<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> can <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">will<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> cause rust and <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">will<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> eventually become harmful to your plants.<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-51106\" class=\"wp-image-51106 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gardenandhome.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/arno-senoner-gqCEOcEISWQ-unsplash-copy-scaled.jpeg\" alt=\"arno-senoner-gqCEOcEISWQ-unsplash copy\" width=\"1707\" height=\"2560\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.gardenandhome.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/arno-senoner-gqCEOcEISWQ-unsplash-copy-scaled.jpeg 1707w, https:\/\/www.gardenandhome.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/arno-senoner-gqCEOcEISWQ-unsplash-copy-200x300.jpeg 200w, https:\/\/www.gardenandhome.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/arno-senoner-gqCEOcEISWQ-unsplash-copy-683x1024.jpeg 683w, https:\/\/www.gardenandhome.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/arno-senoner-gqCEOcEISWQ-unsplash-copy-768x1152.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/www.gardenandhome.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/arno-senoner-gqCEOcEISWQ-unsplash-copy-1024x1536.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/www.gardenandhome.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/arno-senoner-gqCEOcEISWQ-unsplash-copy-1365x2048.jpeg 1365w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1707px) 100vw, 1707px\" \/>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Image Credit: Unsplash<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">This handy gardening tool can and will last for years if you take care of it. Part of that care is never leaving water standing in it when your watering can is in regular use.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gardenandhome.co.za\/gardening\/gardening-made-easy-practical-solutions-busy-gardeners\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>ALSO SEE: GARDENING MADE EASY: PRACTICAL SOLUTIONS FOR BUSY GARDENERS<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"kEqoLHx6n6\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gardenandhome.co.za\/gardening\/gardening-made-easy-practical-solutions-busy-gardeners\/\">Gardening made easy: Practical solutions for busy gardeners<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Feature Image: Pexels<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>The post <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gardenandhome.co.za\/gardening\/avoiding-gardening-mistakes-top-reasons-empty-watering-can\/\">Avoiding gardening mistakes: Top reasons to empty your watering can<\/a> appeared first on <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gardenandhome.co.za\/\">SA Garden and Home<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The watering can is one of the most useful items in any gardener\u2019s tool shed. While a hose,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":273,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-1"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tapyom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tapyom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tapyom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tapyom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tapyom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=272"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tapyom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tapyom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tapyom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tapyom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tapyom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}