Watering Tips for your Garden & Flowers

With summer coming for most of us, watering may be a chore we think we need to do more often. Although this may seem logical, we should actually water less frequently (weekly), but water deeply. Frequent light watering encourages shallow root development and can be wasteful, whereas weekly deeper watering encourages deep root growth for stronger and healthier plants.

It’s best to water your plants/garden early in the morning before it gets hot out. This will help prepare plants for the heat of the day. If you can’t water in the morning, choose the late afternoon or early evening, just make sure your plant leaves will have time to dry before nightfall. Moist leaves can cause fungal diseases. Therefore if you can water your plants without getting the leaves wet, late evening waterings are fine. Soaker hoses can help avoid moist leaves and also allow for deep, gentle watering. Since soaker hoses water slowly make sure you leave them on long enough; dig a small hole to see how deep the water has gone, if it’s not at least 6” run your hose a little longer.

Sprinklers can be a good watering source, but be aware that a lot of water is lost through evaporation and that your sprinkler will need to be moved frequently since they do not water evenly. Make sure you have a long enough garden hose to reach all the areas of your yard, garden and/or flower beds.

Watering cans and water wands can easily provide water to specific areas and plants. With a gentle rain like output potted plants, flowers are gardens can each individually be watered to their specific needs. These methods can also be held close to the ground to avoid getting the leaves wet.

Finally, if you don’t have the time to go out and water your plants you can get a timer for your sprinkler or soaker hose. These can be simple; water every day at the specific time you select, or they can be high tech and test the moisture to decide whether to water or not.

There are many watering methods to choose from, find the one that is best for you and your plants.

Weed Control for Your Gardens & Landscape

There are few things more satisfying than watching your carefully planted seeds germinate into colorful flowers or tasty vegetables. Unfortunately, germinating right next to your seedlings are the dreaded weeds. Taking over your garden and turning your winter garden dreams into summer weed-pulling nightmares.
There are basically three ways of controlling weeds; weed mats, organic controls or pre and post emergent herbicides.

Weed mats or weed barriers are easy to install and last for years. Simply prepare the ground for planting, unroll the fabric, cut out x’s as needed for new plants and cover with 2-3” of mulch. They are designed to let water and nutrients through to the roots but stop weeds from establishing. Weed mats are an excellent way to control unwanted growth in permanent landscape areas or under walkways and decks.

Natural and Organic controls are spray or dry spreadable products that are made of ingredients which are generally considered good for the environment and safe for use around children and pets. They still must be used as labeled to be safe and ensure proper weed control. Some of these products such as Weed Prevention Plus and Safe N Simple are weed control and fertilizer in one

Herbicides can be applied as pre-emergent’s (forming a barrier on the soil that doesn’t allow seeds to germinate) or post-emergent’s which are used to kill existing weeds. Both are very effective when used according to directions. Timing is critical when using pre-emergent herbicides once the weeds start to grow you must switch to a post-emergent. The herbicides are available in concentrates, ready-to-use and granular formations.

No matter what weed control you decide to use make sure you have a plan. If you stay ahead of the problem you can enjoy your gardens and not have to spend another summer constantly pulling weeds.