Watering newly installed native plant bed

16 years ago

We spent all day today installing our new beds at our weekend ranchette. We used all natives and drought tolerant, very low watering need plants. My question is how frequently should I water now. I know when they are established the watering should be very infrequent, but I am not sure what to do at first. The dirt is clay.

And since we are only out here on the weekends, we need timers. Can anyone recommend one that can handle multiple zones, but not at the same time? We bought one (too tired to remember the manufacturer now) that has four zones, but you have to run them all concurrently and we don't have enough water pressure from the well to do that. So I am hoping to find a timer that allows setting different times for different zones.

Many thanks!

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Comments (3)

mikeandbarb
16 years ago
That makes it hard being a weekend place but if your lucky you may not even need to water them if you get enough rain fall. I would think that watering them deep on the weekend would be enough. Mulch them if you can, even if it's rock, it act's just like bark mulch.
Last year I had planted a no water bed on the west side of the house and with all the rain we had it took off like gang busters.
I have not had to water that bed once. In it are Rose of Sharon, Butterfly bush, 3 Salvia greggi's, Graua, 2 Yucca and 5 verbane.
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xeriscaper
16 years ago
I always give my natives plenty of water at first until they get established...at least the first couple of months. After that they are pretty much on their own..if they live, they live..if they don't, well most plants are cheap to replace. I have loose soil so in my garden so I water once per week, but I water deeply. I don't have a irrigation system so I think that would be wonderful to have.
What kind of plants do you have?
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hitexplanter
16 years ago
As warm and dry as it is I would think that for 4 inch or 1 gallon sized natives I would water at least 2 times a week for now and monitor closely over the weekend to see how they look. Water on Sunday if that is your last day there and then set timer to water on wednesday and then again on Friday. You see how they look on Saturday when you arrive and manual water again later on Sunday before you leave. In a month see if you can skip 1 watering time.
I still think that depending on plants and rainfall that twice a week for this summer may be needed. One deep watering a week is possible but the rain and heat and how quickly the roots get in the new soil will dictate this.
When you first plant the root ball is all that is holding moisture when it drys out if it doesn't get a new watering the plant stresses and the roots will not be as active and get into the native soil. This needs to be your goal for the immediate future (next few months) then depending on heat rainfall and mulch covering you may be able to water just on the weekends while you are there but I or no one I know of can guarantee this. Orbit, Lawn Genie, Toro and Rainbird along with several timers that aren't on the top of my head should work for your situation. Look for one that allow everyday watering and then skip days as needed. to accomadate the amount of zones you have.

I would ask what kind of irrigation did you install and how many zones do you need? What is the well capacity in gpm (gallons per minute)? Many timers will have a A or B that allows multiple times a day or more varied times throughout a given week. These are type I would think would help.

Know the the plants and sizes and how they are grouped and the amount of sun and or shade they get will be other factors in deciding the water frequency needed to establish and maintain.

I hope this at least gets you headed in the right direction and helps you in some small way.
Happy Planting David
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Watering newly installed native plant bed

Comments (3)

mikeandbarb

xeriscaper

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