Hot Weather Care for Landscape Plants
Watering plants is especially important in warm weather; however, as simple as it might sound, many well-meaning people waste resources and damage plants by doing it incorrectly. Here are some tips to help you avoid the most common mistakes.
How Much Should I Water? The general rule is that gardens and lawns need one inch of water in one watering per week. This allows moisture to soak deep into the soil, and encourages roots to strengthen by growing further down.
Established gardens can do fine on less than this, however, depending on the soil, exposure, and types of plants. In general, it takes two years for a garden to establish itself.
Tip: If you see water running off, this is an indication that the water is not soaking into the soil. Lightly spray your beds to moisten the top layer of mulch, wait 15 minutes, and then water as you normally would.
How Do I Know When I've Watered Enough? Place some straight-sided, open-top containers, such as cottage cheese tubs, in various locations throughout your yard or garden, and then water for 15 minutes. Measure the amount of water in the tubs so that you can calculate how much total time you will need to water in order to accumulate one inch in each tub.
When Is the Best Time to Water? Early morning is a good time to water, since it is cooler and you won't lose too much water through evaporation right away. Some plants, such as roses, don't do well with droplets sitting on their leaves, so either water them at the roots, or at a time when there will be enough sun to evaporate the drops relatively quickly.
Watering in the cool of the evening is another option, but there's a greater chance that water will stay on foliage overnight.
Should I Water a Little Bit Each Day? No! It is best for all gardens and lawns if you put down a full inch of water at one time. This allows moisture to soak deep into the soil, and encourages roots to strengthen by growing further down.
What Is the Best Way to Water? Hand-watering is the best because it allows you the most versatility in dealing with the needs of different plants. Use a hose with no nozzle, and put water at the base of the plants at ground level (not three feet off of the ground).
Drip irrigation systems are next best because they are effective at targeting specific locations.
Moveable sprinklers are handy, but they have less accurate distribution and leave water on the foliage, which is bad for roses and plants with heavy blossoms.
Automatic sprinklers and trigger spray nozzles are the least effective. The spray from automatic sprinklers is often blocked by foliage, leaving some areas significantly drier than others. Trigger spray nozzles, often shown in home supply store commercials being swept over flower beds, typically do not put down enough water to be effective.
What Can I Do to Conserve Water? Consider letting part of your lawn go dormant by watering it only every three to four weeks. If you water it deeply at those times, the roots should stay healthy and it should be able to revive in the fall. (Do not do this with lawns that are under two years old.)
You can also choose to not install plants that require large amounts of water, or else group them together so that you can selectively provide more water to a smaller area of your garden.
What Needs to Be Watered Most? New gardens! Plants installed in the last two years do not have the root structure to withstand much dryness. Keep a special eye on the new plant in an established bed, or the one underneath very tall trees that can suck up to 500 gallons of water per day.
What Can I Consider Planting Now? The Garden Guides website has a very helpful list of late summer and fall flower options; click below to see it:
List of Flowers to Plant in the Late Summer and Fall Wondering about late-season vegetables? Click below for a complete list from the Love to Know website:
Good Vegetables to Plant in the Late Summer Did you know?You'll need to allow approximately an extra two weeks for fall harvest plants to mature because of shorter days and cooler temperatures.
Keeping Container Plants HealthyHouseplants create a wonderful atmosphere in the home, but can they ever be frustrating! Sometimes it seems that no matter what you do, one or two are determined to end up with brown leaves, or, worse, slowly perish. Here are tips that should help you keep the upper hand.
How Can I Tell When My Houseplant Needs Water? Plants in pots and containers always need more frequent watering than garden plants, especially those in clay pots. One of the best ways to check is to push your finger into the soil up to the second knuckle. If the soil feels dry, it is probably time to water.
Why Is My Well-Watered Houseplant Wilting? 
When a plant's soil is moist but its leaves are wilting it can be because the root system is not able to take in water as fast as the leaves are emitting it. You can encourage the root system to become stronger by making sure it has plenty of room to grow in a large enough pot. Placing the plant in a shadier location also helps by reducing transpiration.
When Is the Best Time to Water Houseplants? Water in the morning or the evening to avoid the heat of day, and make sure that water droplets do not sit on leaves for too long before evaporating.
Tip: Container plants in sunny locations on asphalt or decks that retain a lot of heat are likely to need daily watering.
Why Does My Houseplant Have Brown Leaves? The culprit could be any of a range of issues, including over-watering, under-watering, disease, or minerals in the soil. How do you find out? The article linked to below tells you how to discover the cause of the problem, and how to correct it:
Watering Houseplants with Brown Leaves Why Are My Houseplants No Longer Doing Well? It could be because most potting soils are peat-based, which makes them not really designed for long-term use. Peat decomposes quickly, which leads to less aeration, impeded drainage, and salt build-up, according to an interesting article on the About.com website. This is why newly potted plants often do well at first but later lose vibrancy.
According to the article, you can probably get away with peat-based soil by re-potting every year, or you can improve the soil mix by adding perlite to increase aeration. There are more good suggestions on the website, which you can click below to read:
Potting Soil for Healthy Houseplants 
Did You Know? Some plants that are native to warm environments can actually go into shock if they are watered with very cold water.
If you liked these tips please check the 'Links that Make Life Easier' section below. You'll find more good gardening links there!
Keeping Kids and Pets Safe in Hot Weather Most pet owners have no idea that they could be endangering their beloved animal's life when they leave it in the car for ten minutes while they pop into the store on a hot day, but
the interior temperature of a parked car can reach lethal levels in a very short period of time.
The numbers are actually astonishing:
One study found that on an 80 degree day, in the first 20 minutes of being parked in the sun a white car's interior temperature rose to 115 degrees, while a black car's interior rose to 171 degrees; it reached 192 degrees in 30 minutes.
Even on a 72 degree day a parked car's interior temperature can reach 91 degrees after just 10 minutes, and 106 degrees after 30 minutes.
A study also showed that leaving windows cracked open made relatively little difference in overall heat build-up.The bottom line: After just 15 minutes, the temperature inside your car could be well over 100 degrees - even with the windows partially open! Pets are most likely to be put at risk, since most people would never purposely leave a small child unattended in the car. However, there has been a tragic increase in vehicle-related child hyperthermia deaths ever since legislation passed requiring child car seats to be placed in the back, where they are less visible to parents who tend to be increasingly distracted. (Remember just ten years ago, when most people did
not have emails and text messages constantly buzzing through on their phones? These days that's the norm.)
Tip: Experts recommend that you always keep a reminder item, such as a pacifier or a teddy bear, next to you in the front seat when you are driving with a child in the back.
Tip: If you notice someone's car alarm going off repeatedly on a hot day,
take the time to peer through the window to make sure it's not being set off by an animal or child inside.
Did You Know? A common cause of dogs overheating is when they run next to an owner who is on a bicycle. Bikes let us move quickly with much less relative effort, and some dogs will literally run themselves into heat exhaustion trying to keep up. (Dogs also sweat through their paw pads, which makes running on hot asphalt especially hard on them.)
Have a safe and happy summer, and please forward this information to anyone you know who you think would appreciate it!
