This is post two of a series that takes its lead from a piece in Martha Stewart Living (May 2018) that offers "10 smart ways to help your plants thrive [while you] go truly, vibrantly green." I see them as classic "all-time" garden tips and rewrite them to situate their relevance in a Buffalo, NY context.


In "the garden literature" there is a lot written on how to use less water for your garden - a conservation that's practices' range from capturing rain water to planting plants that don't need water. To keep this contained I will have to offer my essay as a series of bullet points.

• We have to contextualize our our position in Buffalo and WNY. We sit on the shore of Lake Erie and have the greatest availability of fresh water anywhere in the world. Water here is not scarce. Not that we should waste water, only, understand that water is valued differently in other places and so influences their gardening culture. We develop our gardening practices and style because of what resources are available to us to make with. Buffalo has water - generally - and so we can create amazing lush gardens that people from around the world can visit - in part because of our geographical and climate context. Of course, our supply isn't infinite. We still must use water responsibly.
• If you are trying to do xeriscaping in Buffalo, NY you are living in a commodity bubble. Get out of it and touch the world you are apart of.
• When we save water in Western New York, in rain barrels for instance, it isn't because we need water for the garden. The promotion of rain barrel use and water capture practices are, in Buffalo, for the average home garden, about keeping rain water out of the storm sewer which is outdated and doesn't have the capacity to handle the run off following the historical moment of the parking lot and the driveway. When it rains heavy it causes the storm sewer to overflow into the sanitary sewer which then in turn overflows into the river. Pay attention to summer time beach closings on Grand Island. (Some urban farms may be the exception to this as water capture can become an alternative to using city water).
• Lawns naturally go dormant when it is hot and dry (with "cool season grasses" of Bluegrass, Rye, and Fescue that we use here). It is OK for the lawn to be brown. Let it happen. When you start forcing plants to do things they wouldn't naturally do, problems start. An established lawn should not need to be watered more than 8 to 10 times per year in WNY. Before Memorial Day, I cringe when I see sprinklers running. Same with late September and October. Establishing a new lawn with sod or seed is an exception - especially sod which demands supplemental watering to stay alive until established. If you want to conserve water, lose the automatic sprinkler system: And if you need to have it for labor savings, operate the system in manual mode, turning it off and on only when a human decides the landscape and garden needs water.
• With ornamental plantings, if you want to water less, don't plant annuals. Generally speaking, trees, shrubs, and perennials, once established will not need supplemental watering. In the heaviest of droughts, maybe - but they can be cared for with one or two very deep waterings. Watering ornamentals is more about performance. By the time Garden Walk comes around at the end of July, most of a gardens plants look cooked. One's eye can see the dryness in browning leaf margins and dull colors. With this, you will see Garden Walk participants out the 10 days or so preceding the event as just a few good soakings will "lush up" all the plants and give them a refreshed cool sense to them. Most important though for the average homeowner and gardener - established plants aren't going to die. Even the supposedly more "dramatic" weather we have seen in past years, I have only seen one summer in all my experience where established trees - of course those most susceptible to drought - actually died, and even then, it was only a handful and they were in difficult growing situations to begin with.

I am never able to finish a writing project. I start a new one every three to four days but inevitably drift off into a new problem. So, when I came across this short list in "Martha Stewart Living" I thought it would be a helpful exercise to offer a local expansion and commentary on the list of "10 ways to help your plants thrive and [for you] to go truly and vibrantly green' offered in the May 2018 issue. A quick and easy piece that allows me to retell 'the classics' - like doing a cover of the greatest and most common gardening tips of all time. "Buff Hort riff's on the classics."

"Keep it Quenched." 
"Water deeply yet infrequently" is no new rule. It comes from two principles - (1) if you run a sprinkler for 20 or 30 minutes you may get the top 1/2 inch of soil wet. This will contain the roots of your plants to this same 1/2 inch horizon. Of course the sun and wind dry this top layer almost instantly necessitating another irrigating. This is when our second issue arrises. The frequent watering makes for constantly wet foliage and as anyone with a bathtub and a shower understands, these are ideal conditions for fungal growth and plant diseases can thrive. So the idea to "water deeply, infrequently." Instead of watering X amount of time everyday, water 7X the quantity of water weekly. The allows water to percolate and be drawn deeper into the soil, expanding the zone roots will grow in and find what the need, while keeping everything dry - thus limiting favorable fungal conditions - for long as possible.

As to whether you should water early in the morning or in the evening - I say, first and foremost, if the plants need water, water; just get the job done as soon as possible. But, if you and your plants have the privilege of being theorists the watering in the morning will allow the sun to dry the foliage quickly after irrigating. Manual watering is ALWAYS best; automated sprinkler systems are the decline of so many landscapes and gardens. They don't have to be, but the hope to automate the most delicate and sensitive of all horticultural operations never goes well. 

We could write about and comment on techniques, tactics, and strategies of watering for a very long time. There are many specificities and exceptions - but, like gardening, it is an art; see this as a guide only and follow no hard rules. Let experience and your personal relationship to your plants and garden be your most referenced and used tools. 



NOTE: This blog post has made no effort to be SEO friendly.