Weathering drought

This May I posted about my suspicion that I was over-watering my garden, and why that was environmentally unsound. The post prompted me to cut back drastically on watering via our sprinkler irrigation system. Until this summer, I had the system programmed to deliver water twice weekly to each of twelve irrigation zones.

    I was aware that most of my established trees, shrubs, and perennials were well adapted to dry spells during New England summers. They needed frequent watering in their first two years while they got settled and developed a generous network of roots. After that, they should be able to thrive without supplemental watering, except at the driest times. 

Established plants should be able to cope with dry summer conditions

    So why didn’t I cut out the watering after plants entered their third year in the garden? One excuse is that I was continually adding new plants, so often a bed with older plants also contained newcomers. But I think the real reason was that in my heart, I didn’t really believe that my babies could make it through the summer without a regular soaking two or three times per week.

Would the balloon flowers perish without watering?

    After challenging myself with that blog post, I decided to focus on watering areas where I’m growing vegetables, annuals, and newly planted and perennials. In the rest of the garden, I’d stop irrigating. If individual plants needed water, I’d water them by hand.

I'm still watering a bed of vegetables and pollinator plants

     Overall, I’m surprised and pleased at how well the garden is looking this year with about a third as much irrigation as I gave it during the last few summers. My area is experiencing a mild drought. This weekend we were 5 inches behind our average precipitation for the year, despite heavy rains this week. Yet the garden is chugging along, not noticeably daunted by the dry conditions.

Doing fine without watering

    Over the years I did reduce watering in some of the irrigation zones that contained only mature plants. A red-leaved Japanese maple (Acer palmatum ‘Atropurpureum’) and mostly evergreen shrubs in a bed of vinca (Vinca minor) in the front yard got less and less irrigation. This year this zone is getting none, which highlights an issue with my planting plan.
     
     Two mountain hydrangeas (Hydrangea serrata) that I planted in the front yard don’t tolerate dry spells the way the other denizens do. The hydrangeas wilt dramatically after three days without rain or irrigation. 

Lacecap hydrangea starting to wilt

This year, instead of taking that as a cue to irrigate the whole bed, I’m watering the hydrangeas with a watering can. That seems to suit them fine. 

     I could have avoided this complication if I’d thought to group plants that need lots of water together in one irrigation zone, as a Xeriscape gardener would do. That way I could have lavished water on one section close to the house and let the rest of the yard fend for itself.

     By taking parched conditions in stride, the garden is teaching me a lesson. I’m seeing that it’s OK to let my plants live as they would naturally, including tolerating some dry times. 

Coneflowers unfazed by summer weather