Click below to listen to my 2 min. Garden Bite radio show/podcast: Keep on watering and mulch!
In my area we have experienced a persistent drought that has really affected our plant life. My red maple finally turned but it looked rough. While rain has been predicted it’s been sprinkles. As mentioned on Monday’s Garden Bite, I believe my Hackberry has sent out even more surface roots in search of water, which affected my raised garden bed. This found in Treehugger: Trees in a forest develop roots that sprawl well beyond their individual branches and leaves in search of water and nutrients. In fact, some experts today speculate that tree roots grow laterally to a distance equal to the height of the tree or up to five times the radius of the canopy.
My rain barrel has sat empty for weeks. I finally laid down the soaker hose and started watering the maple.
I’ve also started watering my 3 year old crabapple and the young ancestry oak too. If your area has suffered drought conditions, keep watering.
As I mentioned previously, I have an aversion to using city water only because I don’t want to waste it, on the other hand, it’s important to keep our plants healthy as they provide so much for us and pollinators.
It’s a circle of life thing we have going on with nature! I just read an article last week in our statewide paper that the Twin Cities area of Minneapolis/St. Paul are now in an extreme drought situation and some old trees have not been able to bear the burden. Some have split and left big empty holes.
These situations affect many things. As trees offer shelter, beauty, carbon sequestration and the list goes on. The bottom line at this point in my area and many parts of the country is to keep on watering through Fall. In particular you need to keep watering trees/shrubs that are less than 3 years old.
It’s hard as we see trees changing color and losing their leaves, we think it’s time for us to also start our shutting down process in our landscapes.
But right now, I urge anyone living in drought areas to supply an inch of water a week to your plants, even the established ones and to add mulch. Mulch makes a big difference in keeping that moisture in and regulating soil temperatures.
