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Landscape Watering
Instructions
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Watering can be one of the
most confusing tasks of all gardening chores, but also
one of the most critical to ensure the proper
development and performance of your landscape plants.
Below, I will share thoughts to assist you with
understanding proper watering procedures for your
landscape.
General Watering Discussion, Techniques & Judgment
Annual & Perennial Flowers /
Lawns -
Established & Newly Planted
Landscape Shrubs, Groundcovers & Small Trees /
Larger Trees &
Evergreens
To
Auto Irrigate or Not to Auto Irrigate
General Watering Discussion, Techniques &
Judgment
Though watering
instructions can be sometimes simple, the most
difficult area of choice is how to adjust any
general watering instructions given based on
seasonal changes, soil conditions, and variety
and/or plant category.
I'll start with
seasonal variations based on the amount of
rainfall. Many homeowners often get confused and
alter their watering procedures based on
rainfall expectations or occurrences. If
rainfall persist for a long period throughout
the day and is slow and consistent, then it
probably will provide adequate rainfall for deep
watering. Quick rainfall or hard thundershowers
often do not provide adequate watering for deep
saturation, so don't be alter your watering
procedures too much from quick fast rains.
Soil conditions
can also have variances affecting watering
procedures. Hopefully, most planting conditions
promote highly organic soils combined with that
of well drained attributes. If so,
frequent watering can be accepted, but poorly
drained soils and heavier clay conditions can
sometimes promote excessive moisture.
In general,
remember that too much water means too little
oxygen and air flow. Oxygen contents in the soil
is necessary for proper root development and
performance. Always attempt to start with
adequate soil preparation to ensure proper
drainage, but when not possible, adjust watering
procedures to ensure proper drying conditions
between water applications.
Variety
differences can require you to alter your
watering procedures based on particular
varieties that are sensitive to either too much
or too little water. Remember, when planning
your garden, inquire what plants in your
landscape are senstive to either extreme. Any
well trained horticulturalists will be able to
inform you as to what plants you are choosing
are sensitive to excessive or inadequate water
supply.
Last, but not
least, method and volume of watering plays a
hugh role in the interval of your water
applications. Water applications can be
performed by rotating and non rotating
sprinklers, soaker hoses, pressure spray
nozzles, watering cans, and of course, my
favorite being manual watering utilizing a water
hose and, simply as I can say it, your finger to
deflect the water dispersed from the hose
into a broken up spray pattern. No matter the
procedure you select, you need to ensure the
bottom line result provides a thorough soaking
deep around the plants root system. For flowers
and small perennials, root systems are
shallower, but for larger shrubs and trees,
their root systems are deeper, so slower soaking
is necessary.
Annual &
Perennial Flowers
Annual flowers can
be one of the most reliant plant groups needing
regulated watering attention. In general,
watering attention on a 1-2 day interval basis
is required for many annuals especially those
ground or hanging containers which often require
daily watering. Obviously, due to the shallower
root systems of annuals, deep watering are not
quite as necessary and rainfalls have more of an
affect on your chosen intervals.
It's recommended
to manage watering of annuals in the early
morning hours before excessive heat arrives in
the afternoon. Avoid watering late in the
evening and ensure watering in later afternoon
allows thorough drying on the foliage before
nightfall.
Manage adequate
watering during the spring to ensure that
annuals and perennial are not allowed to wilt
excessively, but also do not over water keeping
the soil continually wet for drying between
watering intervals is preferred. Remember,
excessive under or over watering is most common
during the early development of annuals and
perennials since their root systems are young
and sensitive to extremes of either drying or
continually wet conditions.
Landscape Shrubs,
Groundcovers, & Small Trees
Probably one of
the most difficult categories of watering
procedures, often newly installed and developing
landscapes suffer from inadequate watering
management. Due to the larger and deeper root
systems of various shrubs, ground covers, and
small trees, the method of water applications
play a huge role in ensure proper water
applications.
As mentioned
earlier, larger root balls, especially those in
5 gallons and larger containers, require water
applications that will saturate the root balls
of these newly planted plants. The more reason
that quick fast rains or thundershowers play
little role in providing adequate watering for
these newly installed plants.
The common
recommended interval of water to a newly
installed landscape is every day for the first
3-5 days after installation and then 2-3 times
each week following. This watering attention
should be managed until newly developing plants
have well rooted and generally needs to be
managed for the 1 year after their installation.
Obviously, frequency of rainfall and daytime
temperatures do play a role in these watering
intervals, so it's obvious that early spring,
late fall, and the winter season does require
less watering attention. Though these lower
temperature and higher rainfall seasons do
require less attention, don't be fooled into not
managing watering needs during this time of
year. We often have dry periods during these
cool seasons, so occasional watering is needed,
especially if recent planting was chosen having
the plants dependent on supplement water
applications. My recommendation for watering
during the cooler seasons would be once weekly
unless heavy rainfall conditions exists.
I will once again
stress the importance of method of watering. Be
leery of watering with sprinklers, watering
cans, and pressure nozzles for they can often
not provide adequate watering unless managed
properly. I feel that there is nothing
better than manual watering utilizing a water
hose and high volume water breaker nozzle or
simply your finger to deflect the water pattern.
Select a group of shrubs or trees, say a group
of 6-12 and work rotate between this group going
back and forth allowing deep saturation to each
and minimizing runoff not providing deep
saturation thru to the full depth of the root
ball of the plant. Once you have worked within
this group back and forth multiple times, you
can continue to the next group. Remember, one
thorough watering ensuring deep water
penetration is more adequate than multiple quick
watering applications.
If you have
difficult to reach shrubs that are planted
individually or at hard to reach locations from
your home's water source, utilize a water
container, such as a used milk jug, and punch
several narrow slits in it's base to provide a
steady water drip and place directly at the base
of each shrub. it's amazing what 1 gallon of
water applied properly will do to a newly
developing shrub.
Larger
Trees & Evergreens
All of the same
techniques listed above apply to this category
of newly planted developing trees and
evergreens, but often these are positioned or
placed in locations far away from water sources,
positioned on slopes, or simply large enough
that other time efficient methods are available.
Be leery of
carrying large 5 gallons buckets of water to
each tree for many times this is not applied
slow enough to direct the water deeply down thru
the larger root system. A system utilizing a
drip jug or container is very effective as I
have described above. It's possible that you'll
want to utilize a larger container and rotate
from one larger plant to the other. Sometimes,
even if a water hose can reach these intended
larger plants, this technique provides efficient
use of water as well as ensure that the full
amount of the water applied is focused directly
down thru the larger tree or evergreen's root
system. An available method of utilizing a slow
drip technique is with a 'Gator Bag' which is a
ring shaped bag that holds anywhere from 10-20
gallons of water that is dispersed slowly thru
small designed drip mechanisms on the underside
of the drip bag. These 'Gator Bags' are
available at Evergreen of Johnson City.
Another good
technique if a water hose can reach the intended
tree or evergreen would be to turn the hose on
very slowly to provide a very slow steady stream
of water and place at the base of each larger
tree or evergreen for approximately 10-20
minutes depending on the size of the tree or
evergreen being watered.
For larger hedges
of screening evergreens, often soaker hoses are
utilized to attempt a slow watering of a larger
group at one time. I'm hesitate to suggest this
method, for it has several weaknesses to include
waste of water in-between trees, misbalance of
water due to pressure variances of long soaker
hose runs, etc.
Lawns -
Established & Newly Planted
Lawns can be one
of the most difficult areas of the landscape to
water without the use of an automated irrigation
system installed by a professional. There is a
large portion of the year that normal rainfall
is adequate to fulfill your lawn's water needs.
During the summer and early fall season, many
lawns suffer from inadequate water or natural
rainfalls and often have a tendency to display a
look of dormancy turning a discolored green or
brownish color. Usually this is not a problem if
you don't mind accepting the discolor and lack
of deep green lush color, but in extreme drought
conditions, some dieback can occur during
excessive drought conditions within your lawn.
We urge you to use
caution during excessive dry periods of the
summer and early fall season and manage at least
weekly watering applications to simply mange a
viable root system that will bounce back when
temperatures and adequate rainfall resumes.
Rotating or oscillating sprinklers are the most
common water devices utilized when watering
larger open areas such as home and business
lawns.
The recommended
water applications would suggest 1" of water
each week for a lawn to have adequate water for
lush and active growth conditions. During the
hot and dry seasons, any amount of water that
can be applied to manage a viable and functional
root system is recommended. Your choice of how
much water to apply would amount to what
practical to you as well as what level of
lushness you prefer to achieve. Any watering
attention that you provide will easily allow you
to understand and judge the results from your
efforts.
With regards to
managing water on newly sown or sodded lawns, I
urge you to utilize the necessary techniques to
ensure a well develop root system during the
first year after installation. Though Evergreen
of Johnson City does not recommend establishing
new lawn in spring or summer due to Fescue lawns
being extremely sensitive to summer drought when
underdeveloped. Fall seeding has become a
standard recommendation in our area and promotes
the advantages of the cooler fall season and
rainfall, but also provides three cool seasons
of root growth before the lawn's first summer
challenge.
I've so often seen
lawns sown in the spring and germination is
acceptable and strong, however, severe dieback
and recession is caused during the summer months
and fall renovation is often required following
such a stressful summer condition. Often there
isn't a choice in the matter with newly built
homes, so I often recommend that fall
over-seeding and/or light renovation be expected
the following fall.
To Auto Irrigate or Not to Auto Irrigate
Well, whether to
utilize the assistance of a professional
automated irrigation system is one to be
carefully considered. As a company that does
design and install such automatic irrigation
systems, I have experienced the pros and cons of
such systems.
With regards to
their value to newly developing landscapes, I
believe automated irrigation systems do provide
wonderful benefits to the landscape, especially
with that of lawns whether seeded or sodded.
What needs to be reminded is that, like
mentioned often above, over watering is as
much of a problem as under watering. If an
irrigation system is monitored properly and
variable circumstances such as rainfall
variances and daytime temperatures are taken
into consideration, then you have nothing to
loose and all to gain. Automated rain
sensors can be incorporated into a well designed
automated landscape irrigation system taking the
guess work out of turning your system on or off
during rainfall variances.
Many home or
business owners think that more water is better.
Rarely is daily watering advised as an overall
watering schedule due to simply drowning or
keeping root systems excessively wet and
reducing oxygen levels suppressed.
The most common
watering cycle that is utilized by irrigation
systems managed by Evergreen is 2 times weekly
during the spring and mid fall seasons and 3
times weekly during the summer and early fall
seasons. Depending on the nature and intensity
of the irrigation system's design, properly
designed systems usually run for 10-15 minutes
during each watering cycle.
In closing on this
topic, I feel that irrigation systems are a
positive and good option for the landscape when
designed and managed properly. If a property
owner is wanting a lush lawn during 12 months
out of the year, then an irrigation system is
quite necessary due to our drier summer season.
Automatic irrigation for newly developed
landscape plantings is very adequate when
managed properly, but use caution with tree &
shrub varieties that are sensitive to excessive
moisture levels.
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Info
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General Watering Discussion, Techniques & Judgment
Annual & Perennial Flowers /
Lawns -
Established & Newly Planted
Landscape Shrubs, Groundcovers & Small Trees /
Larger Trees &
Evergreens
To
Auto Irrigate or Not to Auto Irrigate
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