BEGINNINGS OF A DRAUGHT

This has been the most unusual winter/spring, going into summer that I have ever seen. Winter was warm and dry… spring was early, warm and dry… and now we have summer coming up again, warm and dry. You may want to consider watering, not only your yards and freshly planted flowers and vegetables but also your trees and shrubs. In fact all of your perennial plants, flowering and evergreen as well as your ground covers need to have some water at least once a week until we get some real rainfall.

My vinca-minor, also known as myrtle has been established in the landscaped area for years and it has never needed to be watered after the first year. It is wilting right now and needs to be watered.

No doubt your trees and shrubs are also on the borderline of too dry. Why not water them today and keep them from showing visible signs of stress. Leaf damage due to stress will then create a later problem with insects.

Save yourself a lot of trouble down the line and water your plants.
Fertilizer is not something that you want to use at this time as fertilizers can cause real damage to extremely dry plants and to your lawn. Stick with water and maybe fungicides, especially on mildew prone plants like hydrangeas, lilac, azaleas, etc.

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Misting is never a good idea as the added moisture causes fungus problems to arise and the mist, especially during the day, can cause sun scorch which will ruin your plants. Case-in-point: we sat several 12″ potted geraniums around a large beautiful fountain and never gave it a thought that the fountain was throwing off a light spray. After a few days of sunshine, the entire side closest to the fountain had sun-scorched leaves. All we could do after that was to remove all of the leaves and wait for them to re-grow.

Remember this story when it comes to your sprinkling system. Watering should be done in the morning so that your leaves can dry out during the day and go into the night dry.