The watering habits of every gardener differ broadly. Most gardeners are busy with their non-garden life and let their poor plants to stay dry and thirsty until they are wilted before they get watered.
On the other hand, some landscapers pamper their plants by over watering them. With either of the two, plants get stressed. To perform the proper watering, here is a short guide to help you do your gardening task as well as save water consumption.
Go With The Sun
Before planting, determine how and how long the sun feeds your lawn. Get to know patterns of sun’s shade.
Hence, try to grow dry-soil plants in sunny regions, and raise those plants that need more water in sheltered areas where there is slow evaporation.
Determine the Balance
Though watering seems an easy task, it will take a bit of art to perform appropriately. Begin by identifying the type of your soil and measuring the amount of water your plants would receive.
Vegetables require an inch of water each week given by either irrigation or rainfall. It converts about six gallons per square yard a week. On sandy grounds, you can water them twice per week with a half inch each time. On the other hand, loam or clay soils can take an inch of water once a week.
Further, thoroughly saturating the soil with occasional watering is better than regular, shallow watering. Deep soaking helps plant roots to stretch deep into the ground while shallow watering retains roots close to the surface, making the plants sensitive to drought.
Cultivate Enough Mulching
Mulching throughout plants is an excellent way to lessen water loss and also cuts deep on water-stealing plants.
Organic mulches would combine pine needles, compost, and bark chips. Through this practice, you can save water by spreading your ground-up leaves and grass clippings on your vegetable and flower gardens. These natural mulches slowly break down and add healthy minerals to the soil.
Separately the inorganic material including pebbles, landscaping paper, and rocks are a more permanent alternative, although they may heat up too prominently in some climates.
Invest in a Rain Barrel
Another water-saving technique is setting up a rain barrel near your home, shed, or garage, and capture rainwater coming down from the roof. You can install a rain barrel on every corner of your house or outbuilding if you want.
Use the valve on the bottom of the container to drain rainwater into a watering vessel, or consider attaching a hose. Rain barrels are necessary when rainfall is rare, and you don’t probably want to fully use the supply of your home water to feed your garden.
Create Porous Paths
Garden tracks made of porous material let rainwater drain into the ground and feed the roots of the plants, instead of running off into the street.
You can make a porous path using gravel, pebbles, spaced bricks, or non-mortared concrete pavers. However, beware that weeds may grow between solid materials. To keep plants down, line the path with landscaping paper or even a newspaper before piling on the porous material.
Takeaway
Water is a crucial factor to your garden’s life, yet gardeners usually waste this valuable resource. Whether your place is suffering from drought or not, follow those guidelines above along with the gardening essential from Deal Wiki so you can cut down on your water usage without sacrificing your garden’s beauty.