All about watering your landscape 101

When it comes to watering the landscape, everyone has his or her own ideas and beliefs. Some people water their plants once a week, others water plants 2-3 times a week, and yet others never water their plants- living everything to nature. If you want to enjoy your landscape or garden at its best, especially throughout the summer, then in most cases you need to water them frequently. To most people watering simply means holding a hosepipe over the plant for a few minutes or let the sprinkler do the watering automatically. However, there are a few tricks about watering that can help your plants become stronger and more durable.

The majority of pants growing around homes, in the vegetable garden, lawns and flowerbeds require about 2-3 cm of water or rainfall each week during the developing season. If you have had a decent rainfall during the week, then watering can be avoided. If the rainfall has been minuscule, then one must water.

Superficial watering does not do much for plant growth. Watering is best done deep and can be done infrequently. Watering more than twice a week is not recommended because shallow watering encourages shallow rooting. Deep watering allows roots to embed deeper in soil, making plants better able to tolerate stress.

If you are not sure how much water to give to your plants, place a small marked container at the bottom of soil. When you water, check the time when the water reaches to a certain mark. Sometimes water runs off before it has time to penetrate the soil and you have accomplished nothing. To avoid run off, decrease the amount of water you use or water for a short time. Allow the water to sink and soak the plant, and irrigate again.

Everyone has their own personal time to water their plants. In general, watering of plants is best done early in the morning. At this of the day, one uses less water because there is no evaporation. One should avoid watering after dusk because foliage will stay wet all night and become prone to disease.

Watering anytime in the afternoon is also not recommended. When drops of water sit on leaves, they act as a hot spot (magnifying glass) and burn holes in leave due to sun's energy. Further, when irrigating is done in the afternoon, it uses up much more water because the majority evaporates before it even reaches the deep soil. Thus, always water first thing in the morning because it conserves water, allows deeper penetration and decreases the risk of spreading plant disease.

To make watering more effective, place a decent layer of mulch around the garden and trees. The mulch significantly reduces evaporation from soil and also helps to keep the soil cool and moist. Further, mulch also acts as a great obstacle to weeds that contend with your plants for water. Mulch can be made of tree bark, wood chips, pine needles, mowed grass clipping, or desiccated leaves.