THGL

I'm looking for a little advice here. I'm not much of a gardener, but the house my wife & I bought a couple of years ago came with some decent landscaping (with a watering system built into it). The system wasn't working when we moved in but I'd got it working now and I need to know a good watering schedule. The system connects to one of the sillcocks so I bought a programmable timer. The timer has 2 preset schedules, M-W-F-Sat-Sun, and T-Th-Sat-Sun; I can also make up my own schedule. I just need to know how often and for how long to water. 20 minutes seems to saturate the ground pretty good. How much water is too much? Should I water MWF + weekends or T-Th + w/e?

A little more info: I'm in Louisville, KY so our rainfall amount is pretty middle of the road. The flower beds are mostly boxwoods, ajuga, monkey grass, hostas & daylillies (and a couple other misc. plants & a couple of trees). The main beds are also in the front of the house so they get full afternoon sun.

Thanks much!

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The_Jazz

If the system only covers the beds, then you probably don't need to do much more than 20 minutes 4 days a week. Make sure that you set it to go off at night or early in the morning so that the water will be asborbed by the plants and the ground. Watering during the day will only lead to evaporation of most of the water. Pay attention and make sure that none of the plants are getting waterlogged or constantly sit in a puddle. None of the plants you've listed are big water-hogs, so you could even cut back to 3 days a week unless it's been hot and dry long enough for the plants to start showing signs of distress.

For the trees, you want long, infrequent waterings. Remember that tree roots generally extend to 3x the diameter of the crown. Most of the water from 20 minutes of sprinkler action is going to get absorbed by the plants above, and tree roots generally travel much deeper than plants (6'-18'), so make sure that they're getting water at least once or twice a month. Trees won't send roots under a sidewalk (unless you build the sidewalk on top of them) or anywhere else where there won't be any water for them, so use that as your guide.

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thingstodo

Ditto. You really need to look at the needs of the idividual plants and may have to adjust the zones/time accordingly. Google is great for checking all that. The trees sure need a longer time since the roots are deeper and there is a drip line to the edge of the branches, as previosuly mentioned by Jazz.

You didn't mention grass Kentucky Blue Grass??), which in your neck of the woods probably needs water every other day, especially in July. IN fact, if you get rain every other day now, and based on what you listed, you may not even need to water at all!

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genuinegirly

er...20 minutes 4 days a week? Unless your system is less than a trickle, I think you'll be drowning those poor daylilies. Maybe you have a different variety than the ones we have out here in CA, but ours only need to be watered 2" twice a week.

You never get less than 2" of rain a month in Lousville, according to the averages mentioned on www.weather.com. May looks like your wettest month on average with 5". In LA, we're lucky if we get 0.5" of rain. I'm jealous of Kentucky! (never thought i'd say that)

Looking at the water requirements for the plants you specified:

Boxwood - hearty. These plants prefer partial shade, but they do all right in the sun. It has shallow roots and will do poorly when exposed to long periods of dryness.

Ajuga - which one? Ajuga Reptans is a ground cover. Ajuga Genevensis has blue, rose, or white flower spikes, and tolerates more sun than its brothers. Ajuga Pyramidalis has blue flowers with purple bracts that press up against the flower. Each of these have different preferred growing conditions and water requirements, but in all of them, look out for root rot caused by fungus and nematodes (microscopic worms), which can be encouraged by over-watering.

Monkey Grass - haven't ever seen this in person, but sounds beautiful, apparently it's a staple ground cover of the South. Do yours have the little white-lilac flowers that are supposed to hide among the blades of grass? or are the blades veriegated with white stripes? Do they tend to grow in clumps, or diaganally run? Anyhew, there are so many different types, but all are drought tolerant, invasive, and love well-draining soil (the clumping varieties do ok moist, non-draining in soil even though they do better otherwise).

Hostas - should be in full shade. these do well in a bog, why are they in your sunny front yard? Are they really doing well?

Is your neighbors' landscaping similar to your own? Let me know, this is fascinating.

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bobby

the key is to measure how much water the system puts out( a tuna can is the old stand by) and adjust the schedual to suit the plants/soil conditions/weather as talked about above......xoxoxoo

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thingstodo

A tuna can...now that's a pretty cool idea. And you're so right about measuring. Time is meaningless without the actual result being measured!

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THGL

Thanks everyone. I'll give the ol' tuna can a try and adjust the schedule as everyone mentioned. Right now it's set at T-Th-w/e for 20 min.

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"The truth is merely an excuse for lack of imagination." - Garak