Water is the lifeblood of any garden, but knowing how to use it wisely is key to maintaining a healthy and vibrant landscape. This article looks into the nuances of watering everything from lawns to vegetables.
When it comes to watering plants, it’s more about using your judgment than just following set rules. A good rule of thumb is to water your garden early in the morning once a week, but remember, different plants have different needs.
Take young trees for example. If they have a trunk that’s 2 inches thick or less, they usually need about 10 gallons of water every week. They’re still growing and don’t have big root systems yet, so they need more help from us to get enough water.
On the other hand, big trees like Redwoods are a different story. They’ve got really large root systems that reach far into the ground. Because of this, they’re good at dealing with less water – they’re drought-tolerant. What’s more, these big trees often get all the water they need from your regular lawn watering. Plus, they’re great at storing water in their trunks and leaves, which helps them get through times when there’s not much water around.
So, the takeaway is: Young trees need more focused watering, but for big trees, your usual lawn watering routine is usually enough.
When it comes to watering plants in your garden, different types of plants need different amounts of water, and it also depends on the season.
Landscape Shrubs: These are the bushes you might have around your garden. Usually, you should water them every week or so (7-10 days). But when it’s really hot in the summer, you might need to water them a bit more often, like every 5-7 days.
Azaleas and Moisture-Loving Plants: Some plants, like azaleas, always need the soil to be a bit wet. They don’t like drying out, so you have to water them quite regularly to keep the soil moist.
Drought-Tolerant Plants: These are plants that can handle not having water for a while. An example is ornamental grasses. They’re pretty tough and can go through dry periods without much water.
Container Plants in Clay Pots: Plants in pots, especially those in clay pots, dry out faster than those in the ground. This is especially true in summer. You might find yourself needing to water these up to three times a day when it’s really hot because the sun can dry out the soil quickly.
Flower Beds: For flowers planted in beds, a good soaking once a week is usually enough. If you water them for about an hour once a week, this can really help them grow well.
Vegetables: Vegetable plants generally need about the same amount of water as flower beds. However, when they’re growing fruits or veggies, or at other important times in their growth, they might need extra water. So during these times, you might have to water them more often.
Seedlings and New Seeds: When you’ve just planted seeds or have young plants (seedlings), they need the soil to be moist all the time. This might mean you need to water them twice a day. If the soil dries out, the seeds might not grow, and the young plants can get stressed or die.
Mature Vegetable Plants: When your vegetable plants get bigger, especially when they start to make vegetables, it’s important to keep the soil evenly moist. Not too wet, but never completely dry. This helps the plants grow healthy veggies. For example, if cucumbers don’t get steady water, they can taste bitter. Tomatoes can get a problem called ‘blossom end rot’ if they go through dry and wet spells.
Plants with Fungal Disease Risks: Some plants can get sick with fungus diseases if their leaves stay wet. So for these plants, it’s best to water right at the soil level near the base of the plant. This way, you keep the leaves dry and reduce the chance of fungal diseases.
Basically, how you water your plants depends on what stage of growth they’re in and what kind of plants they are. Young plants and seeds need a lot of attention with water, while more mature plants need consistent watering, especially when they’re making fruits or vegetables. And for plants that don’t like wet leaves, water them at the base to keep them healthy.
Lawns and Water Usage: Lawns usually need a lot of water. It doesn’t really matter what type of grass you have. It could be warm-season grasses like Bermuda or Zoysia, or cool-season types like bluegrass, fescue, or rye. They all need a good amount of water.
How Much Water?: The goal is to give your lawn about 2 inches of water every week. This amount of water is enough to soak the soil down to about 12 inches deep. That’s the ideal depth to keep your lawn healthy.
Measuring Water: You might wonder how to make sure your lawn gets 2 inches of water. One way is to use a rain gauge, which can measure exactly how much water your lawn is getting, whether from rain or your sprinkler.
Simpler Watering Method: If you don’t have a rain gauge or don’t want to use one, there’s an easier way. Just run your sprinkler for about an hour or two every week, like every 7-10 days. The exact time depends on your climate – if it’s hotter and drier, you might need to do it more often.
When you’re watering a sloped area or soil that’s really packed down and hard, you have to be careful. Water doesn’t soak into these kinds of ground easily. Instead, it might just run off the surface and won’t get down to the plant roots where it’s needed.
Here’s what you can do:
Start Watering Slowly: Begin by watering the area just a bit.
Watch for Runoff: Keep an eye out for when the water starts to run off the surface instead of soaking in.
Take a Break: Once you see water running off, stop watering for a bit. This gives the water already on the ground time to soak into the soil.
Water Again: After the water has soaked in, you can start watering again.
There’s no one-size-fits-all formula for watering. Factors like soil type, weather, water pressure, and the type of sprinkler used all play a role. For instance, different soils handle water differently. If you have sandy soil, it doesn’t hold onto water very well. It drains quickly, so you might need to water more often. But if you have clay soil, it holds water much longer, so you don’t need to water as frequently.
Using organic mulch (hay, straw, wood chips, or shredded wood products made from pine, redwood, cypress, or cedar) is a highly effective way to conserve water. Mulch suppresses weeds, stabilizes soil temperatures, adds organic matter, and conserves water.
You can use organic mulch in pretty much every part of your garden – around trees, shrubs, flower beds, vegetable gardens, and even lawns. For most areas, a layer of about 2-4 inches is good. Just be careful not to put it too close to the stems or trunks of plants, because this can cause problems like rot.
Leaf surfaces stay damp throughout the night, it creates an ideal environment for various fungal diseases to take hold. This is indeed a concern for gardeners, and it’s likely that at some point, plants in your garden may become susceptible to a fungal infection. A homemade fungicide, can be a game-changer. Mixing a tablespoon each of baking soda, vegetable oil, and dishwashing liquid in a gallon of water creates an effective prevention and control solution for fungal diseases.
