Garden Watering

Summer is here and with it summer watering. The time of day you water can help lower your water bill by needing to use less and also reduce harmful bug infestations.

Keep the bugs who would like nothing more than to eat your delicious flowers and vegetables to a minimum by simply watering in the morning or early afternoon. This allows the leaves and ground level soil to dry out before nightfall, when most bugs are active. However, if the only time you can water your plants is at night that is better than nothing, just expect there will be a few unsightly spots that occur, either from bugs or just from water damage. Yes, water can damage a plant too, especially if not allowed to dry out for long periods.

Oh, there are plants that thrive on being wet all the time such as bog and pond plants. In fact, if you have a small whiskey barrel pond like we do with a fountain that has some splash-out at times, have pond plants inside and put bog plants in pots around it. However, plants like daisies (with the exception of the African varieties) aren’t very fond of having water splashed on them and can quickly lose their beautiful flowers, which if you also planted alyssum will seize the opportunity to take over. Yes, I’m speaking from experience.

My rules for watering depend on the weather. Most of the time during the summer here in the Pacific Northwest we can get away with watering every other day, possibly more for well established plants. However, when the temperature gets above 85º I find it best to water daily, especially for shallow rooted plants and vegetables and any perennials planted that year. Hanging baskets and pots usually get watered daily regardless due to their quick drainage, which can quickly cause a plant to dry out.

When we see a plant wilting, we immediately think we need to water it, but I caution against such actions. Plants like pansies wilt in the heat to conserve water, actually draining their water down to their root system and resupply it back to the stems and flowers when the heat passes. This is its own little defense mechanism. If one were to water a wilted pansy in heat they’d probably kill it. I say probably because I did this one time and all the small pansies died but the larger ones survived. So my advice is to wait until early morning to water to make sure they have enough water for the day and not worry too much about wilting. However, if you see dried leaves, that is the biggest indicator your plants aren’t getting enough water and I’d suggest watering it right then and there. Also if a rose is wilting it is telling you it is thirsty and should be watered immediately.

More established plants and shade plants don’t always require a daily dose of water, or even an every other day watering. Pretty much everything in our rock garden, even though it is in full sun all day, only gets watered once a week during the summer. This, of course, also has to do with the plants we have there, most of which are drought tolerant. Hopefully this will help you not only conserve water by not watering unnecessarily, but also use it when needed. Of course, if you are in an area where water is at a premium, I’d suggest the drought tolerant varieties for your garden as well as anything native to your climate, as these will require not only the least amount of water but also the least amount of upkeep.