Secrets for properly watering your garden
By any measure –beauty, size, health, design, variety –the garden of Linda and Brian Blyth is simply astounding, with plants running the gamut from anemones to zinnias.
The “wow factor” is increased with sculptures, pathways past neatly tended vegetable plots and under clematis-and sweet pea-covered arbors, past fields of cleome and datura, to water lily-covered ponds busy with dragonflies and frogs.
Surprisingly, the Town of Tonawanda garden has thrived this summer without extra watering.
“It’s been an unusual year,” said Linda Blyth. “It’s almost like being on vacation. In June, I remember thinking, ‘OK, whoever has been praying for rain can stop now.’”
Of course, she doesn’t neglect the always needy baskets, the annuals and the newly planted perennials that require extra attention, no matter what the rainfall.
It’s a very low-tech system. “I’ve got a cute little watering can and a galvanized bucket, but what I use is my canning jar,” said Blyth, whose garden is a “must stop” on the annual Ken-Ton Garden Tour, which takes place from 10 a. m. to 4 p. m. Saturday and Sunday (see Garden Notes on Page C2 for details).
Watering a garden properly isn’t as straightforward as turning on a spigot and holding a hose nozzle.
It all starts with doing some homework, advises Ken Brown of WBEN’s Home Garden Show.
“I see people standing out all the time, but no one is patient to stand there long enough. “You’re fooling yourself if you think that’s a good way to do it,” he said.
A better way is to turn on a sprinkler and measure how much water is being applied, trying to get to between 1 and 1z inches per week.
Here’s how it’s done: Set out an empty tuna can to see how long it takes a sprinkler to get to the desired measurement.
When Blyth waters, she sets up a sprinkler for as long as an hour before moving to another spot. She has five spigots in the garden, a 100-foot commercial grade hose and several shorter ones.
Ideally, gardens should be watered early before hot sun rays can reabsorb the moisture and not at night when wet stems and leaves become more susceptible to disease.
“I know you are supposed to water early in the day — so this can be somewhat of a ‘do what I say not what I do’ — but there are times when I’ve spent most of the day watering,” said Blyth. “I try not to do it later than 5 or 6 o’clock at night. A lot of plants aren’t happy about getting watered then and they get mildew.”
In the spring, Blyth does what she can to ensure moisture retention for the rest of the growing season. For one, after she digs a hole for a new plant, she fills it with water.
“That lets it know where its roots should be going,” she said.
Deep roots remain cooler and are less likely to be damaged, even during winter storms. “Winter wetness kills more perennials than any other problem,” said Blyth, who recommends well-amended soil and raised beds to prevent such damage.
Once a plant is in, she creates a small moat around the base to capture water and then mulches the finished bed with an inch or so of compost (she prefers compost available from the Amherst Highway Department).
Hanging baskets get special treatment, too. When she gets a basket home, she tips the plant out and lines the container with a plastic bag, into which a few holes have been punched, so water isn’t wasted.
Also, when she repots flats of annuals, she mixes up new soil with half compost and half potting soil.
“Whatever soil the nurseries use in baskets can get dry as a bone,” she said. “It’s good for the greenhouses, but in real life it doesn’t do as well.”
Another Blyth trick is to dig a pot into the ground, leaving it a couple of inches above the soil line, which keeps a plant from drying out as quickly as it otherwise might. This year, it’s working well for impatiens, which become real water-lovers in the sun, and a Gartenmeister fuschia, which she’ll later lift out to over winter.
When gardeners are intent on minimizing watering, another technique they can use is grouping plants that have similar requirements, said Ken Brown.
So, day lilies, sedums, ornamental grasses and lamium would do well together, he said, referring to some not requiring much water. When there is a “needier” plant, Brown suggests filling a plastic container, like a milk jug, with holes punched in the bottom to allow water to seep directly to its roots.
“I do it with my hydrangea all the time,” he said.
As a general rule, plants need to be watered deeply and thoroughly, not shallowly and frequently, said Heidi Gee of the Western New York State Nursery and Landscape Association.
“I’ve had more people love their plants to death by overwatering,” she said. “The soil around plants needs to regain oxygen levels, so, if somebody waters a bit every day, the soil is constantly moist and the water takes up more space, where you need the oxygen.”
One caveat — newly planted material, especially shrubs and trees, need to be thoroughly watered until established.
“There’s a category of plants that we say require three times the amount of water,” said Gee, who works at Russell’s Tree & Shrub Farm.
“It includes spirea, barberry and the dappled willow, which is a very hot seller right now.
“You have to water them every day when they first go in,” she said. “If you are going away for a weekend and it’s 90 degrees, that willow will crisp up while you’re gone. What I recommend is a gel pack. We’ve had a dramatic decrease in loss by using that product.”
For the Blyths, the best insurance is being right in their garden, all summer, so they can see what each plant needs.
“I wouldn’t dream of leaving,” said Linda Blyth, seated under a shady restful spot, where she can oversee blooming passion flowers, prairie sun rudbeckia and sky-high corn plants — ready with her canning jar, or hoses, as the need arises.
