Creative plant watering techniques

There is no doubt about it that this sum­mer is one of the hottest we’ve had in a long, long time. In fact the week of July 2 more than 4,500 record high tem­per­a­tures were bro­ken in the United States. With local tem­per­a­tures surg­ing more than 100 degrees in recent weeks and lit­tle rain in sight, even the most avid and expe­ri­enced gar­den­ers are strug­gling to keep their plants alive. As the Gazette reported last week, Delaware water reser­voirs are the low­est they have ever been; there­fore ‚we are under­stand­ably under a water­ing ban for lawns and gar­dens. At times like this, it is obvi­ous why water con­ser­va­tion move­ments once reserved for the desert are gain­ing pop­u­lar­ity in all land­scapes. While under a water­ing ban, it is pos­si­ble to keep your plants watered if you are will­ing to be a lit­tle creative.

First and fore­most one needs to pri­or­i­tize his or her plants. Estab­lished trees and shrubs are likely to have root sys­tems deep enough to access water, so they should be able to make it through this weather with lit­tle addi­tional water­ing. More showy shrubs like hydrangea, roses and but­ter­fly bush will likely require more water. In my gar­den, I am stay­ing more focused on pre­serv­ing the health of my peren­ni­als than my annu­als. After all, the annu­als will meet the same fate no mat­ter what. While a brown, crunchy lawn is a sub­ur­ban night­mare, it is not in crit­i­cal con­di­tion. As long as the grass is estab­lished, it pro­tects itself in this weather by going dor­mant. Plants that are in most dire need of water are recent trans­plants, con­tain­ers and young plants. Luck­ily, tomato plants can sur­vive with shock­ingly lit­tle water. Any plant in the ground will likely fare bet­ter than those in con­tain­ers because a con­tainer cre­ates a micro­cli­mate that dries expo­nen­tially faster than in the ground.

Unfor­tu­nately, one very effec­tive method in max­i­miz­ing water reten­tion for plants is to remove any weeds that will com­pete for what­ever water you do pro­vide. While it is not desir­able weather to be out weed­ing, it could make a big dif­fer­ence in the sur­vival of your gar­den. Mulching, even the soil in con­tain­ers, helps a great deal in max­i­miz­ing and retain­ing water. Also, when you water is of the utmost impor­tance. Water­ing in early morn­ing is ideal. Far more of the water will be absorbed than evap­o­rate as it would later in the day. And even though those leaves look so thirsty, water the base of the plant instead of the foliage. Water droplets on leaves are more likely to evap­o­rate; and can act like a lens and mag­nify the suns rays, scorch­ing the plant.

Of course, none of those tech­niques change the fact that we are still under a water­ing ban…so how do you get water for your gar­den with­out using your hose?

• Catch rain­wa­ter. While rain has been sparse lately, a plan to har­ness what­ever water we do get from the occa­sional shower is vital. Gut­ters and down­spouts will pro­vide the most out­put for the least effort. This can be as sim­ple as a Home Depot $2 five-gallon bucket, or as elab­o­rate as a custom-designed gut­ter sys­tem and reser­voir tank. Cap­tur­ing the water com­ing out of down­spouts can pro­vide gal­lons of water with min­i­mal effort and rain, because roofs have such great sur­face area. For even greater col­lec­tion, place buck­ets out when rain is expected.

• Recy­cle water. It is sur­pris­ing just how much water one can gather in sim­ple ways. For instance, if your water takes a few moments to warm up plac­ing a bucket in the shower to catch that oth­er­wise wasted water would def­i­nitely be appre­ci­ated by a thirsty plant. If you’re mak­ing pasta or blanch­ing veg­eta­bles, drain over a bucket, let cool, and use to water. Even bath­wa­ter is suit­able to use to water plants. And being the height of bar­be­cue sea­son, instead of let­ting the ice in the cooler go to waste, save it and use it in the gar­den. Or it might be worth it to buy a few bags of ice and let them melt in the gar­den overnight.

While this sea­son we are being forced to think out­side the box on water­ing, it really is a great tool over­all for any gar­dener to decrease con­sump­tion and increase recy­cling by using alter­na­tive sources for water. One last note, if you have been think­ing that shrub might look bet­ter in another cor­ner — put the shovel down, and wait. Trans­plant­ing in weather like this could eas­ily kill even the most hardy perennial.

Posted by Master Gardener on Jul 14 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.