By Gary L. Wade
University of Georgia
It may be time to start drought-proofing the landscape to help it
survive times of limited rainfall and little to no irrigation.
Georgians, like other Americans, have a growing thirst for water.
A recent U.S. Geological Survey report noted a tenfold increase
in public water use since 1950. That’s mainly due to where a
growing number of people live. More than two-thirds of the
state’s 8.4 million people live in just 24 of its 159 counties.
As competition for water increases, summer restrictions or bans
on outdoor water use occur more often, even during years of
normal rainfall. If you rely on municipal water to keep your
landscape green, you’ll likely be affected at some point by
restrictions or bans on outdoor water use.
Not expensive
You don’t have to invest a lot of money, though, to make your
landscape more drought-resistant.
Just changing how you water can often help. Reducing the amount
of water you give landscape plants this spring will reduce their
reliance on extra watering this summer.
By weaning your plants off extra water now, you’ll encourage
their root systems to grow deeper. The more you baby plants with
water now, the shallower their roots will grow and the more water
they’ll demand during dry times.
Consider putting in some sweeping beds of pine straw, pine bark
or hardwood mulch. Many local governments collect and grind the
brush people leave at the curb and then give it back as mulch.
Check with your city, town or county about these materials. Some
counties provide them free or for a small fee.
Great investment
Mulch is one of the best investments you can make in the summer
landscape. It traps moisture in the soil, making it available to
the plants longer. Fine-textured mulches like pine straw or pine
bark do that better than coarse-textured mulches.
Newspapers aren’t just for reading any more. They make excellent
mulch around ornamental shrubs and flowers.
Use a leaf rake to gently pull back the mulch you have now. Dip
newspaper in a bucket of water and spread it two sheets thick
over the ground. Then put the mulch back to hide the newspaper
and hold it in place.
Newspaper not only helps hold moisture but adds organic matter to
the soil as it decomposes.
When planting flowers, it’s easier to spread the moistened
newspaper before planting. Then make holes in the paper and plant
through them.
Best watering
Hand watering with the garden hose and targeting plants that need
water is more efficient than watering with a lawn sprinkler,
which waters some plants that don’t need it.
When watering by hand, use a water breaker to apply water slowly
at a rate the soil can absorb. This may require you to make
several passes over an area.
Put saucers under patio plants to collect excess water. As the
soil in the pot dries out, it will wick up the excess water from
the saucer as needed.
Water wicks
When planting container plants, use strips of old T-shirts,
flannel sheets or other cotton fabric as wicks, extending from
the saucer through the drainage holes in the bottom of the pot
and into the soil media. The fabric acts like a wick in an oil
lamp. It pulls water into the soil media as needed.
The wick-and-reservoir combination makes containers self-watering
during the summer vacation, too.
Wire baskets lined with coconut fiber or sphagnum moss tend to
dry out quickly in the summer. So line the inside with a plastic
bag to reduce moisture loss through the container sides. Provide
drainage holes so the pots don’t get waterlogged.
To learn more about conserving landscape water, contact your
county University of Georgia Extension Service agent. Or visit
the “Drought in Georgia” Web site (www.georgiadrought.org).
(Gary Wade is an Extension Service horticulturist with the
University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental
Sciences.)
