We are now officially in the depths of summer and boy can we feel it!  These are the times which make every human, animal and plant hot and tired.  So the watering ritual becomes even more important for the plants.

Even though it may be tough on the humans to get out there every day it might be necessary for some of the more tender plants to have a drink at least daily.  The best time to water is in the early morning, the ground absorbs the water better and if you are using sprinklers you won’t lose much to evaporation.  Plus if you get water on the leaves of plants in the hot sunlight you may burn the plant. Watering and feeding correctly during the heat of the summer will reward you with healthy, thriving plants through the season!

If you have a lot of potted plants you are definitely going to be outside every day to give them some relief.  Their roots have nowhere to go to find moisture from the earth so they depend on you to live.  Depending on the construction of the pot you may even have to give a couple of drinks during the very hottest of days.  Don’t let them dry out or they may never recover! These plants also are going to need plenty of food to keep them looking good, again because their roots have no place to reach additional nutrients.

For every plant whether potted or in the beds giving enough water is crucial to survival, you can’t just casually spray them a little bit and expect that to be enough.  Here at Nature’s Friends Landscaping we are happy to help you look at your watering needs and see if we can help you with an irrigation system.  But in the meantime you need to provide good, long drinks for all the plant material in your yard.  For brand new trees and shrubs, laying the hose at the base of the trunk and slowing it to a dribble is good, leave it there for at least thirty minutes a couple of times a week if there is no rainfall.

A tree, shrub, perennial or annual can’t escape the hot sun so you have to give them some help to make it through these really hot days!