Your city or county has banned or restricted outdoor water
use. But you’ve invested big
bucks in your landscape. How can you water it without water?
It can be done, said Gary Wade, a horticulturist with the
University of Georgia
Extension Service.
No, you can’t train your landscape plants to do without. They
have to have water to
survive.
"But you can do a number of things to help landscape
plants make the best use of
the water they get," Wade said. Some of the best things you
can do require no water
or very little.
Take mulch, for instance.
"Three to five inches of mulch will help hold moisture
in the soil and prevent
evaporation from the soil surface," Wade said.
"Fine-textured mulches, such as pine straw, pine bark
mininuggets and shredded
hardwood 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 of
established 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 plants
your newspaper. Use a leaf rake to gently pull back existing
mulch. Be careful not to
disturb 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 as
an added barrier to moisture loss."
But don’t make the paper layer more than two or three sheets
thick. A thick layer of
newspaper, 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. Fertilizing
and 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 be
necessary when a plant wilts and begins showing leaf scorch, and
branches start dying. In
this case, cutting back the top will reduce the water demand the
foliage places on the
roots.
If you can water, use a garden hose to direct water only to
wilting plants to conserve
water.
"Give priority to trees and shrubs planted within the
past four months," Wade
said. "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 them
to wilt before you water.
"Some perennials, like sedum, gaura, day lilies and
ornamental grasses are
extremely 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 turn
gray-green."
If you’re not allowed to water anything outside, Wade’s
advice is to cut back annual
and 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 system
alive," he said. "Lightly pruning shrubs that become
severely wilted will also
help them conserve moisture and survive the dry period. And if
plants are stressed,
mulching is critical."
