How to Keep Live Plants During a Drought
If you live somewhere with all four seasons (or more realistically two: summer and winter), you can look forward to growing outdoor plants when the weather gets warm. But things can get complicated if it doesn’t rain. Many parts of the Southwest and Great Plains are likely to continue to experience dry conditions throughout the summer, while short-term droughts may develop in parts of New England, according to the National Weather Service’s Climate Prediction Center . (The corn belt and the Midwest should receive adequate rainfall this summer.) In drylands, there are several things you can do to keep your outdoor plants alive – and yes, they are water related.
How to know if your plants are thirsty
The University of California Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources guidelines note that symptoms of water stress include:
- Wilted or wilted leaves that do not return to normal (no additional water) by morning.
- Curled or yellow leaves that may fold or drop along with potential branch dropping.
- Leaves that lose their luster and become grayish or bluish.
- Tanned leaves (especially on the south side of the tree)
- New leaves that are smaller or parts of the stem that are closer together than usual
- Lawn Grass That Keeps A Trail For Minutes
If any of this sounds familiar, you may need to rethink your summer gardening strategy.
Tips to Help Your Outdoor Plants Survive
Rather than just grab a hose and water your lawn, plants, and flowers, here are some strategies from the Gardener’s Journal :
- Water deeply, but infrequently. This means that deep soaking once a week is better than spraying the plants every day because it promotes deep roots and helps wash away any salt build-up in the soil.
- Pour water directly into the soil using drip irrigation, AquaCones, tree bag, or soak hose. With these methods, less water will be lost to evaporation than with overhead watering. You can also use self-watering containers to provide a slow, steady flow of water to the roots.
- Mulch can help. Specifically, lay in 2 to 3 inches of bark mulch, shredded leaves, or pine straw mulch to retain moisture and insulate the soil. And mulch isn’t just for flower beds: it can also be used for container planting.
- This may sound counterintuitive, but stop fertilizing. When you do this, it stimulates the growth of the plant, and the more it grows, the more water it needs.
- Do not prune trees and bushes too much, as this will stimulate their growth as well.
This should give your plants a chance to win during periods of little or no rain.