Rainy days can be annoying, until suddenly you don't have one for a while — and your landscaping starts to suffer. Plants shrivel up, and some might even die. Flowers stop blooming, and your lawn starts looking more like a dust bowl than a green space. Obviously, the right move during a time like this is to water your plants. But there are a few other landscaping maintenance tasks you can also tackle at this time in order to help the plants along.
1. Put down mulch.
Mulch serves a few different purposes. It keeps weeds from growing, which can actually help your garden plants during a time of drought. (The less water weeds use, the more water will be left for your plants.) The mulch itself also keeps moisture trapped in the ground, so less of it evaporates and gets wasted. Wood mulch is the best choice as it is widely available, affordable, and breaks down to provide nutrition over time.
During a dry spell, you can spread about a three-inch layer of mulch over your garden beds after you water the ground well. Make sure you leave a little space around the plant stems themselves.
2. Trim dead plant matter.
Take a look at your plants. If you notice any brown or dying stems or branches, cut them away with pruning shears. This way, they won't be leeching important nutrients and water away from the rest of the plant. After you remove dead plant matter, the plant will have lower water demands and will therefore have an easier time surviving this period of low rainfall.
3. Dig little ditches around each plant.
Something else you can do during a dry spell is to dig a small ditch around each plant. Just use your hands or a small trowel to create a shallow divot in a circle around each plant. This little ditch will gather water when you do water your plant, ensuring that more of the water seeps down into the soil where the plants' roots can access it. If you mulch your garden beds, as recommended above, you will want to dig the ditches under the mulch. The water will trickle through the mulch, fill the ditch, and then soak into the soil.
When rain is scarce, you need to water your plants. However, you can also tackle the landscaping maintenance tasks above to help your plants survive this tough period. For more information and advice, contact a company like Lopez Tree Service.
Share10 July 2020
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