5 Tips For Sustaining Your Landscaped Garden During Drought Periods

One issue that homeowners with landscaped gardens have to deal with is periods of drought where there is little rain, and as such, they must take several steps to ensure that their landscape design is maintained appropriately. Several years ago this advice might only have applied to specific areas, however, across the world there are locations whose climate and thus their weather seems a whole lot different than 20 or so years ago.

Primarily, there are places where the word drought was barely mentioned, but where now it is fast becoming a common scenario, and many campaigners claim this is due to global warming and the climate change that it is creating. Whatever your views on climate change and the many claims and counterclaims that are made, you will know yourself what the reality is for your landscaped garden as to whether the amount of rainfall is sufficient or if droughts are more common.

The point is, to the plants, grass, and other faunas in your landscaped garden, opinions on climate change are irrelevant because they will thrive or perish depending on the reality of the amount of rainfall and hydration they receive. As such, you are the one that needs to take action should drought be an issue where you live. To assist you with that, here are five tips that can make those actions effective and beneficial for your landscaping and what grows within it.

Drought Tip #1 – Get Rid Of Clutter And Debris

To anyone that clears their garden of debris and clutter daily, ignore this tip other than continue to follow it. For everyone else, you must know clutter and debris in a garden are not conducive to healthy plants, nor to a thriving lawn. Pet’s and children’s toys, fallen leaves, litter, and other debris stop grass from breathing and it can also prevent precious nutrients and moisture from reaching roots during a drought.

Drought Tip #2 – Allow Your Grass To Grow

For the conscientious gardeners who mow and care for their lawn religiously, this might seem counter-intuitive, but it can help enormously during drought periods. Grass that is allowed to grow will tend to have longer and deeper root systems and this means it can reach moisture which is located deeper in the soil than normal. Longer blades of grass also cool the soil and reduce the amount of moisture that evaporates from it.

Drought Tip #3 – Be Strategic With Your Use Of Shade

This is something that can be done when your landscape design is first being created, or subsequently. It follows from the fact that being living organisms, most of the plants in your garden share similar needs to others, including humans, and so getting some shade when it is hot is most welcome to them. A gazebo, patio umbrellas, fences, walls, large garden ornaments, and trees when first planted can all be strategically positioned to provide shade.

Drought Tip #4 – Create A Watering Schedule And Stick To It

We assume that you will be watering your garden during a drought period, but how consistently do you do so? The risk is plants are underwatered, or just as bad, they are overwatered which can cause issues. We suggest you create a simple watering schedule for plants based on their needs such as ferns every two days and roses every fortnight, for example.

Drought Tip #5 – Avoid Using Chemicals

The big mistake homeowners make in drought conditions when they see their plants and lawn discolouring and wilting is they try to revive them using chemical fertilisers. This makes the problems worse as many chemical fertilisers contain salt which removes even more moisture from plants including from their roots so if you are going to use fertilisers, use natural, non-chemical ones.