Watering Tips

Rain and Watering:
If it rains heavier then a drizzle before 10am, you don't need to water. If it's not raining by then, you are better off watering anyway. Use half the counts from below when rain is in the forecast and it looks cloudy but hasn't started raining yet. Sometimes, rain is called for the afternoon but even if they call for a possible heavy rain you might not get much. If you water AND it rains, it doesn't matter. You're supposed to check each day of growing season if the plants need water anyway. It just means you might not have to water the next day.


80 Degrees:
For some ground plants, you only need to water every day if it's above 80 degrees that day. If it's below that, you only need to water if it hasn't rained at least an inch in five days. This is true for:
Grass
Shrubs
Trees
Perennials
Ornamental Grasses
Ground Covers (like Ivy or Pachysandra)

* water each day for the first two weeks after planting so the roots can get established.


Grass Tips:
1. Hose Sprinkler: It's hard to water evenly. This is especially true with the kind of sprinkler you attach to a hose. 30 minutes of watering is one inch of water. Depending on how big your lawn is, you need to find a way for everything to get 30 minutes of watering but not more or less then that.

2. Hose in Hand: in order to get 1" of water you need to count to 5 for every 6 square inches of grass. It's not as hard as it sounds if you make focal points. Use lawn flags or empty flower pots. Choose places on each side of the lawn that are natural places to put focal points that aren't further then a between a foot and a foot and a half apart. After putting the flag or pot down, walk back across the lawn and check that it's in a good place. After that, you just count to 5 for each square 6 inches. For me, that means counting to 5 then moving the hose next to that place and counting to five again as I go across the lawn. That's a foot across. I move forward and repeat.

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Container Counts: watering can and based on pot size
Count of 2: 3" and 4"
Count of 3: 5" and 6"
Count of 4: 8" and 9"
Count of 5: 10"
Count of 6: 12"
Count of 7: 14"
Count of 8: 15" and 16"
Count of 10: 20"

* for watering containers with a hose, just make sure the soil at the top is saturated


Ground Counts:
Watering Can 10, Hose 5: Bulbs 0" - 6" and Annuals 0" - 12"
Watering Can 15, Hose 5: Perennials 0" - 6", Annuals 12" - 24" and 6" of Grass
Watering Can 20, Hose 5: Perennials and Ornamental Grasses 12"
Watering Can 25, Hose 10: Perennials and Ornamental Grasses 18"
Watering Can 30, Hose 10: Perennials and Ornamental Grasses 24" and Shrubs 0' - 3'
Watering Can 35, Hose 15: Perennials and Ornamental Grasses 30"
Watering Can 40, Hose 15: Perennials and Ornamental Grasses 36", Shrubs 3' - 5' and Tree Trunk 0'-2'
Watering Can 45. Hose 20: Perennials and Ornamental Grasses 48" and up, Shrubs 5' and up and Tree Trunk 2' and up

*All Counts speeds are meant to be a normal pace. Think no faster then the beat to "Cotton Eyed Joe" but not much slower either.