The water bans in effect in many parts of the country this summer may have taken a toll on your garden and lawn. I asked landscape designer Chris Lambton of HGTV's Going Yard if he had any tips to share on how to keep your greenery looking, well… green.
Early morning is the best time of day to water your plants: Most people water during the hottest part of the day, thinking that this will help out their poor parched plants. Unfortunately, that means that most of the water evaporates with hardly any getting down to the roots. Or you may think it's best to water late in the day, when things have cooled down. The problem here is that the soil will stay moist all night, setting up a nice environment for fungus to grow. The best time to water is early morning (between approximately 4 and 6 am) when the soil is cool and the water will be able to get down to the roots. You can do it while you have your first cup of coffee, or set the sprinklers on a timer if you don't get up that early!
Say on top of your weeding: Weeds, which also need water to grow, will compete with the plants in your garden for water and nutrients in the soil. The cleaner you keep your garden, the more water and soil nutrients make it to the plants you purposely grew in your garden rather than the ones you don't want there.
Keep trees and shrubs trimmed: Cut off all the lower limbs and branches. These "sucker" limbs take away water from the rest of the plant.
Ready to harvest any vegetables you might have grown? Here's another water-saving tip!
(Image: Loree Bohl from Loree's Dangerously Beautiful Garden)
100 DIY Ideas for the 3-Day Weekend
Danielle's Charming, Classic Walk-Up
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
White Enamel Flatwa...
Party Recipe: Creamy Crawfish Dip
Perfect Summer Cocktail Recipe: Honey Bourbon Lemonade
These are nice as a stop-gap measure. How about addressing global warming too so it might RAIN?
We have watering restrictions every summer, so here are a few more things I've been doing for years - my plants look great all summer despite having bone dry sandy soil:
- mow your lawn at the highest setting on the lawn mower
- plant drought resistant grasses for your lawn (I've had excellent results with tall fescues)
- let your lawn go dormant in the summer
- don't water every day, it is better to give your plants a good soaking every few days
- don't water if there is rain in the forecast
- soaker hoses are better than sprinklers for veggies and flowers
- select plants that are appropriate for your conditions (soil type, average rainfall, temperatures, hours of sunshine). Natives are ideal because they are very well adapted to your conditions and will need less water and be more disease resistant
- don't plant anything new in the summer
@Emmi: as if this is the appropriate website to come to or the appropriate expert (landscape designer, really?) to ask.
Anyway, I love his idea to water at dawn, and he's invited to come over to my house to do that whenever he wants! I water every night, just before sunset because it's really the only time I have to do it. So far none of my (many) plants are falling victim to fungus or root rot.
Feeling very fortunate to live in an area that is getting plenty of rain.
@Jess yeah, good point. god knows it's not their responsibility to be good stewards of the planet. They work the land every day. They don't have their noses in an iPad or laptop 24/7. They're outside. But no, don't ask them to apply their knowedge and wisdom.
Maybe they should be more like you and be totally irresponsible.
Chill, @Emmi. I think the point was that this is a decorating blog, not an environmental science one. I'm sure the majority of the readers of Apartment Therapy support the idea of conquering global warming/climate change, but it's not going to happen quickly and it's not going to happen here, in this blog. Saying so is realistic, not irresponsible. Irresponsible is voting for the legislators that stall taking action, so go out and campaign for people who might. Like some of the rest of us out here are doing...
Orrrrrrr, since I got here through the kitchn part of this (cooking blog) how about silly little things like using your veggie washing water, shower warm ups, salad spinner left overs to water? Weird, yeah, but why not just catch what we already use. Oh yeah, and rain barrels?
@Sherry Om, this is the Green section of Apartment Therapy. Did you forget? Voting is great. Refusing to see our role as American homeowners is irresponsible. Sorry, but that's the truth. You think change will happen slowly? Fine. I hope you enjoy the drought and the storms.
To keep my small lawn green during the summer (I live in the DC Metro area), I aerate the lawn twice a year (April and October) with a manual "plug" aerator and top dress the lawn with 1/2 inch of leaf compost (brand: Leafprogro). Despite the hot weather we've been having, my lawn still looks great with relatively minimal watering (once a week).
On the subject of global warming and design blogs - your choices and your landscape design most definitely have an impact on energy usage (which in turn has an impact on global climate change), ergo landscape designers should be aware of this and act accordingly. As a matter of fact, all designers, architects, contractors, etc. should be aware of how design choices impact our energy usage (e.g. size and location of windows, roof overhangs, roofing colors, siding choices & colors, insulation materials, building materials in general). What better place than a design blog to make people think about this? If we can take climate change out of the environmental science corner (which has a small audience) and start integrating it into design, fashion, etc blogs (which have a huge audience), we would be one step closer to slowing climate change down. Too often, I hear people say "We need to wait for the legislature to come up with solutions", "There is no point in doing anything as long as China is not on board", "An individual doesn't have an impact". Until the legislature catches up, there are choices individuals can make that will have an impact - and a design blog can reach many people so the impact is bigger.
Back to landscape design -
a well placed shade tree can reduce your carbon footprint significantly: http://www.arborday.org/globalwarming/summerShade.cfm
"Urban tree planting can account for a 25%reduction in net cooling and heating energy usage in urban landscapes.":
http://www.fs.fed.us/psw/programs/uesd/uep/products/12/psw_cufr703_Akbari_Reduce_Energy_Use.pdf
So - if you have a spot on your property - stop reading this blog, get out there, plant a tree, and help make a difference!
what i do is fill rain barrels w/ the water from my laundry. the plants like the soap anyway. then, if it's the dry season, i easily keep my garden green. plus, carrying all that water is like a trip to the gym.
Oh I had to laugh at the part about not watering in the evening because the ground won't get dry and fungus will grow. This person obviously never lived in a desert place like Nevada. I have only seen mushrooms in the grass a handful of times, always in the over-watered lawns of public parks and fancy subdivisions. And once at my own house when we had new sod and had to water every day for hours.
Our lawn in the Sacramento area took a lot of water. We live in La Paz, Mexico now which is desert by the ocean. So almost no one has a lawn. We use gray water from laundry, dishes, showers, washing the floors, etc. to water our garden and yard. I'm amazed at how much water we used once I started collecting it this way.
Thanks for those wonderful tips... :)
We had a hosepipe ban earlier this year at which point it started to rain and hasn't stopped since ! I disagree that morning is the best time to water plants - if you do this in the evening then the plants have time maximum amount of time to absorb the water before the sun comes out. Here's the guide I wrote at the time - water conservation