By Paul A. Thomas
University of Georgia
Four straight years of drought dashed hopes for many a Georgia
flower bed. And last year’s rainy start turned dry in the end,
fading late-summer colors as if to add insult to injury. What’s a
gardener to do?
Your colorful flower bed can use the barest minimum of water and
still be the envy of the neighborhood. However, you’ll have to
upgrade the way you’ve been gardening a bit.
Step 1. There is no downside to
adding organic matter to native soils. Try tilling in 4 to 6
inches of it and leveling the soil without compacting it. This
will help the soil hold water without getting mushy in wet
weather.
Step 2. Start with plants that
don’t require a lot of water. You’ll save water. And you’ll save
yourself a lot of time in the garden.
Lantana, Celosia, Tithonia, Melampodium, Gomphrena, Dusty Miller,
Vinca and old-timey petunias are some of the many annuals that,
once established, require much less water than most. Avoid New
Guinea impatiens, hybrid petunias, salvias, torenias, ageratums
and marigolds.
Plant as early as you can, too, after the last chance of frost.
The more cool weather annuals have to develop roots, the better
they can withstand dry times.
Step 3. Use drip irrigation. With
water dripping slowly rather than spraying out all over the
place, the water savings are significant. It’s efficient, because
you put the water only where it’s needed, and very little is lost
to evaporation, assuming you cover the drip line with mulch.
Compared to automated sprinkler systems, it’s cheap, too.
It’s not that hard to install, either. You need only some drip
tape, several “y” adapters to take off drip lines from the main
garden hose and the patience to spread the tape out just after
you transplant your bedding plants.
Most hardware stores, garden centers or irrigation supply dealers
will have the hardware and will probably explain how to do this.
Step 4. Add more pine straw than
you may have used in past years. If you hand-place the straw
between the bedding plants so as not to cover them up, a 4- to
5-inch layer will greatly lower your water use. That much pine
straw does two vital things.
First, it cuts down on the heat from the sun, allowing the soil
to be several degrees cooler. This, in turn, lets the plants use
less sugars at night, saving that food for more flowers and
growth.
Second, it keeps the wind from pulling moisture out of the soil.
Less heat and less wind means less evaporation. So the water you
apply with drip irrigation lasts longer.
Step 5. Let the annuals dry out
just a bit before watering. Don’t water every day, or even every
day you can during water restrictions. Let the plants work for
their water by growing roots deeper in the ground.
Each time you water, irrigate long enough to saturate the soil
thoroughly. Then let the entire bed go dry. Let the plants get to
the point that the new growth begins to flag or droop in the
afternoon.
As the plants get older and more established, this slight wilting
will take many more days to happen than newly planted annuals.
The bottom line is that you’ll be watering less often, even as
summer heat chugs on.
This procedure has worked well for commercial landscapers in
Atlanta for the past 15 years. It has been proven to reduce water
loss by as much as 30 percent.
It may take another hour to set up. But the reward is having
beautiful flowers in dry, hot weather without spending your
evenings after work watering your flower beds or sadly watching
them perish in the heat.
(Paul Thomas is an Extension Service horticulturist with the
University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental
Sciences.)
