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Watering

Conserving water is not only a way to save money, it’s become a necessity in some drought-plagued parts of the country. Here are some guidelines to help you get the most from the water you use - and help save money, too.

Water requirements of plants

High temperature and low humidity cause plants to give off (transpire) huge quantities of water into the air, creating a drain on soil reserves. Under these conditions, a large, mature tree releases as much as 200 gallons of water a day. Small plants release much less, but the actual quantity surprises many people.

A block of sweet corn often transpires more the 12 surface inches of water in a season. The average tree, shrub, or flower can grow without regular feeding or cultivation, and even survive several insect attacks. But let it go dry for only a short time, and growth is stunted severely - or the plant dies. Plants require water for every physiologic function, so adequately supply your with moisture.

How much to water

No rule applies to all plants, but a good one to follow is to supplement rainfall until you’ve supplied plants with one inch a week. When you water the lawn or garden, mark a one-inch level inside three one-pound coffee cans and space them within an area covered by a sprinkler. If less than one inch of rain falls during the week following the last watering, run the sprinkler until water reaches the one-inch mark. Empty the cans and reset them each time you move the sprinkler.

Deep watering

This saves both time and money. Water applied to only the top inch or two of soil is wasted because it evaporates before the plants can use it. Roots will penetrate deeply into moist soil. Top growth depends on a continuous supply of deep water to promote strong supporting roots - especially important for trees in windy regions.

Light watering results in shallow root systems. Hot midsummer sun and wind will dry out surface soil in a few days, leaving the plants high and dry. For this reason, let sprinklers or trickle systems do the watering. Few of us will patiently hold a hose long enough to supply sufficient amounts of water over large areas.

Soil amendments

You can save moisture and improve the structure of any common soil by spading in leaf mold, compost, peat moss, aged sawdust, or other partially decayed organic matter. All act like sponges.
Sandy soil dries out at least three time faster than clay and twice as fast as loam. Adding organic matter improves the tilth of all three. It binds sandy soil for better water retention, and opens up clay and heavy loam soils for better penetration by water and air. Mulches also will save soil moisture.

Water robbers

Weeds in your lawn and garden steal water and plant food from the soil - sometimes more than the plants use themselves. Eliminate them with a hoe or other hand tool when they are small.

Wind is another robber. Prevailing winds injure a garden or lawn by increasing soil water evaporation and plant transpiration. Avoid much of this moisture loss by establishing windbreaks, such as evergreens or a fence designed to reduce the force of winds.

What plants have priority?

Some won’t survive unless the soil is reasonably moist at all times. Care for these first if you do not have enough time or water to cover everything. Bluegrass lawns often turn brown in summer heat and drought. Don’t worry about your lawn if you have other plants need water more. This only means the grass is dormant, not dead; it will turn green again when cooler weather and fall rains stimulate new growth.

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You can create a beautiful garden if you have unlimited time. But of course, no one has unlimited time. Those who tend large gardens do so with smart time management. Here’s how you also can have a beautiful landscape, even with limited time.

• Research your plant and landscape decisions. Take a few minutes to read up on your next garden project. You’ll make better choices that will save you from having to redo the project later.
• Block out time for gardening. Some gardeners like to do a 10-minute weed and deadhead session before work each morning. Others make Saturday mornings their time for puttering in the garden.
• Get organized. Devote a corner of the garage or a shed to gardening supplies, and keep them in good working order. You’ll save hours of trying to find the right tool. In the garden, put all the small tools and supplies you need often into one basket or organizer so they’ll always be handy.
• Look at your garden every day. Take a minute or two each day to walk through your yard. It will give you a jump on small problems before they become big ones.
• Keep a garden journal or notebook. Centralize all those magazine articles, seed packets, and notes to yourself in one location.
• Plant in large groups. As a rule, planting a large group of the same type plant is more efficient, because you spend the same amount of preparation time regardless of the size of the planting. Larger plantings mean fewer sessions of preparation time. You spend the same amount of time getting out tools and supplies and preparing the site.
• Group plants according to their needs. Put all acid-loving plants in the same area so you can acidify the soil more efficiently. Keep all moisture-loving plants together so you can water more efficiently.
• Mulch! Mulching saves water, suppresses weeds, and inhibits many soil borne diseases.
• Avoid exotics. Choose low-maintenance plants that don’t require staking, spraying, excessive feeding, protection, or digging up each fall.
• Choose plants that do well naturally in your area. Yes, you can grow delphiniums in a desert, but they’ll take lots of time, effort, and water. If you’re determined to have a bumper crop of blueberries in alkaline soil, you can spend lots of effort on building raised beds and acidifying the soil regularly- but is it worth it? Appreciate what grows easily in your area. Those plants will practically take care of themselves.
• Experiment with flowering shrubs. Excellent timesavers compared to many perennials and annuals, they require little more than a bit of pruning once a year, if at all. In return, they give you abundant flowers and often, fragrance.

Mulches provide many benefits. A three-inch layer of mulch conserves moisture, keeps the soil cooler for better plant growth, and cuts down on time spent weeding. It blocks the sunlight which weed seedlings need to thrive.

The best and easiest way to conserve soil moisture in flower beds and around trees is by mulching. A two inch mulch of grass clippings, straw, ground corncobs, or other material can cut water loss due to evaporation from soil as much as 50 percent. Mulching insulates the soil against hot sun and drying winds; it eliminates rain-compacted soil that keeps oxygen from penetrating the root zone.

Mulches not only prevent water loss, they actually can cause moisture to be added to the soil. Moisture warm air invades the interior of the porous mulch and condenses when the air comes in contact with the cooler soil surface. Research shows that when air temperature is 100 degrees Fahrenheit, a three inch mulch can keep soil underneath up to 25 degrees cooler. This not only conserves moisture; it also promotes better root growth and more efficient uptake of water and nutrients. When soil temperature is high, roots stop growing, and plants suffer - even if moisture is plentiful.

Apply mulch in late spring or early summer. Wait until the heavy spring rains are over and the ground has warmed up enough to be tillable.

Mulch also to decrease rapid runoff of rainwater, and to prevent dirt from splashing on both flowers and food crops. As organic mulches decompose, cultivate them into the soil to improve its tilth, then put down a fresh layer of mulch.

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