Summer Watering- 4 Tips to Keep Your Gardens Watered in the Heat

This is the time of year when a newly planted landscape or garden can suffer. Here are some tips to help your garden thrive, or at least survive!

In our experience we get a lot of calls about dead plants two different times of year. When the weather warms up in April and right about now! The April calls are clients concerned that their plants are dead but many of them haven’t emerged yet! We usually tell them to call us back in a month and 9 out of 10 times the plants they were worried about started leafing out or emerged from the ground. Right now though, when it starts to get hot for several weeks at a time, a lot of damage can be done if plants aren’t watered enough or correctly. Even if your new landscape was planted in the spring and has done well without a lot of watering, it may require more watering now. In our experience we see a lot of people go on vacation and come back to plants that are gone because they weren’t yet established and didn’t get the water they needed. Here are 3 main things to keep in mind to get your plantings through the tough July and August heat in Howard County, MD and surrounding areas:

Check your plants daily in the heat

Are they wilting significantly, even at night? This means that your plants are not getting enough water when they do get watered. Please note that some plants, like hydrangeas, will wilt on very hot days, even when they have been watered thoroughly and you’ll see them bounce back at night time when the heat and sun dissipate. If you check your plants daily you will greatly reduce your changes of the plant reaching its permanent wilting point. There is a point a plant reaches where if it loses enough fluid then no amount of water will bring those leaves back. But do water it heavily to help it come back. If a plant wilts permanently then it’s leaves will turn brown and drop but often it will bud new leaves again in a few weeks. That being said- its possible to over water your plants and kill them that way too. If your plants don’t wilt but turn brown that is a good sign you are over watering. Back off on the amount of water and see if it bounces back. If your shrub or tree looks like its just a pile of sticks, scrape a branch at the bottom of the plant and see if its green under the bark. If so, it’ll probably releaf again, if it receives enough water!

Get to Know Your Plants

Make sure that you are familiar with how your plant looks at its peak.  Take note of the leaf structure, feel, and color.  This will allow you to spot plant dehydration at its first signs so that you can immediately take action.  Some leaves and stems droop, some feel thin, some change color, and knowing what to look for is the best way to stay on top of your garden care.

Water in the mornings and/or evenings

Plants have their stomates open during the day so it’s really best to water them in the morning of a hot day and/or in the evening. If you water at these times the water has a chance to move into the soil at the plants roots, making the water available to the plant during the hot day, instead of evaporating off.  Its better to water for longer, fewer times per week then to water a little bit everyday (this causes better, deeper root development). In the heat of the summer all bets are off though- if you have a new garden struggling to get through the heat and watering every 3 days isn’t cutting it, then you may need to water more often for a month or two. Always continue to check in daily though- some newly established plants may need daily watering in hot temps. If anything was transplanted in your yard- dug up and planted somewhere else- it will need daily watering until re established. Annual pots and baskets will also need daily watering. Anything you bought from the nursery, that is in a soil free media will need daily waterings.

Don’t give up

As long as you check your plants daily and observe how much water you are giving to them, and how often, then your plants should make it through the heat with you. They may drop some leaves or have some parts that die back but come fall they will thrive again! Continue to check closely the plants that wilt more quickly or are in bright sun, were transplanted recently or a newly planted garden.

A Couple More Thoughts and Tricks to Keep Your Plants Alive This Summer

If you are going away, set up a soaker hose or sprinkler on a timer or have a neighbor water for you since you could lose plants that are not established in as little as 2-3 days if they don’t not receive the water they need.

Get a feel for what works best on your property- you may have soil that holds water well and your garden is in the shade- this would need less water than something in the hot sun all day!

If a perennial dies back from drought you can cut it back and new growth will likely emerge again from the base.

Plants are forgiving- if you see a problem and treat it immediately, they will often thrive again!

The gardens I have seen thrive the most through these hot summers are the ones that are on regular irrigation, set up on timers, that run daily in the mornings in the heat for the first few years. Once they are established you can reduces the amount of times the plants get watered to 2-3 times a week. Eventually you’ll only need to water 1-2 times a week in the hottest seasons. Some well established landscapes won’t need water unless we’re in a drought, especially if they are in the shade.

Here are more tips for newly planted garden care:LGS Watering Instructions

Please share what works for you for watering your garden in the summer heat!