Water Your Landscape Without Water
Your city or county has banned or restricted outdoor water use. But you’ve invested bigbucks in your landscape. How can you water it without water?It can be done, said Gary Wade, a horticulturist with the University of GeorgiaExtension Service.No, you can’t train your landscape plants to do without. They have to have water tosurvive.”But you can do a number of things to help landscape plants make the best use ofthe water they get,” Wade said. Some of the best things you can do require no wateror very little.Take mulch, for instance.”Three to five inches of mulch will help hold moisture in the soil and preventevaporation from the soil surface,” Wade said.”Fine-textured mulches, such as pine straw, pine bark mininuggets and shreddedhardwood mulch do a better job of conserving moisture than coarse-textured mulches,”he said.Mulch as large an area around the plant as you can. “Remember, the roots ofestablished woody ornamentals extend two to three times the canopy spread,” he said.Another trick you can use to “water” without water is to give your plantsyour newspaper. Use a leaf rake to gently pull back existing mulch. Be careful not todisturb the surface roots of plants.”Then place two or three sheets of newspaper on the soil surface,” Wade said.”Moisten it, and rake the mulch back over the newspaper. The newsprint will serve asan added barrier to moisture loss.”But don’t make the paper layer more than two or three sheets thick. A thick layer ofnewspaper, he said, will actually keep rainwater from penetrating to the roots.Sometimes the best no-water watering you can do is to not do some things. Fertilizingand routine pruning, for instance, encourage new growth that requires more water.”Fertilizing isn’t wise during extended dry periods,” Wade said.”Fertilizers are chemically salts and can actually dehydrate plants’ roots.”While routine pruning stimulates growth, he said, some selective pruning may benecessary when a plant wilts and begins showing leaf scorch, and branches start dying. Inthis case, cutting back the top will reduce the water demand the foliage places on theroots.If you can water, use a garden hose to direct water only to wilting plants to conservewater.”Give priority to trees and shrubs planted within the past four months,” Wadesaid. “Water these plants every seven to 10 days when it doesn’t rain.”Annual and perennial plants demand more water than woody ornamentals. But wait for themto wilt before you water.”Some perennials, like sedum, gaura, day lilies and ornamental grasses areextremely drought-tolerant and can survive long periods without water,” Wade said.”Plants will tell you when they need water when the leaves wilt, droop or turngray-green.”If you’re not allowed to water anything outside, Wade’s advice is to cut back annualand perennial flowers that wilt in an effort to reduce their moisture loss.”This will reduce the plant top’s demand for water and help keep the root systemalive,” he said. “Lightly pruning shrubs that become severely wilted will alsohelp them conserve moisture and survive the dry period. And if plants are stressed,mulching is critical.”