The question that we have been answering the most this past week is : “Am I supposed to start watering?”
The answer is: “Absolutely”
Last fall was a dry fall, followed by cold weather in early November which was followed by a snowstorm shortly thereafter which halted any late fall watering of plants. Locally, we had only about 20 inches of snow . The heavy wet snow in late March and the rains in early April only amounted to about an inch of moisture.
You need to be sure to start watering your plants that were planted last season. If you planted in the first half of the 2014 growing season, water once a week. In the last half of the growing season until September or so – a couple of times a week and if you did late season plantings – late September to late October – your plants were already into their dormancy period and didn’t do any growing – just sleeping. These plants need to be watering several times a week – in modest amounts – unless we get significant moisture and then even with that – you need to continue to continue to water throughout this growing season.
We have developed a watering chart over several years that calls for small amounts of water more frequently, to get your plants started off right and provides them with just what they need for a successful start!
A good watering is when we get over an inch of rain. A rain that is only a couple of tenths of an inch, only soaks into the top couple of inches of soil, and your plant’s root ball is much deeper than that and you need to add water to thoroughly get moisture to all of the roots of the plant!
Dust off the watering can – pull out the hose – get out the buckets and water your plantings!