Plenty of sun, bathing weather and a picture-perfect summer.
As nice as that may be, there is one thing missing in many regions at the moment: water.
A prolonged, extreme dry period is causing great difficulties for many farmers and gardeners.
Thank God it has rained here every now and then. Because I like to go out on a limb and say that I don't water my garden (except for the pots and the freshly planted plants, of course) and that I have trained my plants strictly to let their roots grow well and deeply.
But what do you do when there is no rain for weeks, the lawn turns yellow, the trees shed their leaves and the flowers droop? I spoke to the experienced master gardener Barbara Gerlach about what "proper watering" actually means. Barbara, what is your garden like at the moment? We haven't had any real rain for months, and we've had a lot of sun and wind. The plants suffer as a result. How do you deal with the dryness? I could save myself and my garden a lot if I simply planted plants in the right location. That means choosing plants based on the soil conditions and hours of sunshine and planting them in the right place. But of course, I also want to have lots of different plants in the garden, so I have to water them differently.
Even with this girl's dream in pink , it is better to water directly at the roots rather than from above.
What does that look like? The most important rule is: water intensively once a week rather than a little every evening. Why is that better? So that the plants learn to take care of themselves. If I only water a little every evening, I only reach the top layer of soil. The roots then become lazy and stay at the top. But you can train them to grow further down where they can get water themselves. Then I don't have to water as much. And how much do I have to water if I only do it once a week? That depends on the plant, i.e. on the size of the root ball. Because that's what I want to reach. As a rule of thumb, you can use the pots in which you bought a perennial, for example: the pots are usually about ten centimeters high, which means that the water has to penetrate ten centimeters into the soil - to the end of the root ball. With shrubs or trees, of course, much deeper. That sounds like a lot of water. And work. Not necessarily. For larger areas, I use a sprinkler with a timer that I can adjust in height and direction. I set it for 90 to 120 minutes – of course, this depends on the soil conditions, so everyone has to try it out – and then the water gets to exactly where I want it in sufficient quantities. If I don't have much experience with this method, how can I know how deep the water has penetrated into the soil? It's very simple: if I watered in the evening, the next morning I dig the spade deep into the soil and then pull it a little towards me. This way I can see the soil profile and estimate how moist it is. By the way – I only use this method for my perennial beds when it is very dry, like now. I usually only water the new perennials with the hose or watering can. But please don't pour water from above; pour the water right at the bottom of the plant.
Photo: Barbara Gerlach
And how can I estimate the right amount of water when watering with the hose? I recommend a little exercise: fill a 10-liter watering can with the hose - set as for watering - and count the seconds. For me, that's about 50 seconds. With the hose, I then need this time to give 1 square meter 10 liters of water. That would be like 10 ml of rain. (In this time, one square meter of area gets the equivalent of about ten milliliters. That's not much, it's just enough for the weeds. That's why I prefer to water specifically with the watering can. I put a watering ring around newly planted trees or shrubs so that the water doesn't just run away above ground, but seeps through the solid root ball into the loose soil. Make sure that the watering ring isn't too big, otherwise the water will run directly into the loose soil without reaching the root ball. (Depending on the size of the plant, 50 liters of water will fit in the watering ring.)
The same applies here: it is better to water thoroughly once a week rather than just a little three times. For young trees, this should be 80 - 100 litres of water per week. Water bags are particularly suitable for this. They are filled once and slowly release the water into the soil through a membrane.
Is there anything else to consider? Garden hose versus watering can? The most important thing is to use the right attachment. You can't water properly with the spray gun that is widely available. Almost none of the fine spray mist reaches the roots; it just briefly increases the humidity. A hose with a watering device and shower head, a sprinkler or the classic watering can are better.
Thank you, Barbara*.
Beautiful hoses?
And since hoses are never particularly pretty, I'm happy to have FINALLY found some nice ones. Phthalate-free, in four different colors and two lengths.
*Barbara Gerlach has been a master gardener since 1982. She lives her credo "so that people and gardens fit together" in her gardening advice. She would like to convey that the garden is a living space, not a job, and that gardening is better than gardening.
She grew up in a nursery, spent several years traveling at home and abroad and has been self-employed for over 30 years.
And if you want to know more about her self-employment: Aus Lust zum Garten