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Put your garden on a 'water budget'

Sacramento Digs Gardening
BY Debbie Arrington PUBLISHED MAR 8, 2021

Yellow flowers and lots of colorful bushes

A garden on a water budget can be full of color and textures: This is the Water
Efficient Landscape at the Fair Oaks Horticulture Center. (Photo: Kathy Morrison)

Is your landscape ready to go on a budget?

Much of your garden’s ongoing expense: Water. And that’s also the type of budget your landscape needs.

“You and your family likely have a household budget, and so does your landscape – a Water Budget,” says the Regional Water Authority, the umbrella organization for Sacramento-area water providers.

But first, you need to know your landscape’s water use and plant needs. Learn how during an upcoming online webinar, “How Much Water Does Your Landscape Really Need?” Registration is now open for this free workshop, set for noon March 25.

“Explore ways to reduce the amount of water used in your landscape based on the types of plants and watering methods you select,” say the workshop organizers.

Although we’re getting rain this week, Sacramento’s long-range forecast looks pretty dry. That will make this informative session extra useful to anyone looking for ways to be smarter about water use. During Sacramento’s warmer months, most residential water use is outdoors.

Presented by the RWA and hosted by the City of Roseville, this one-hour lunchtime workshop will be led by local water-efficient landscape experts Cheryl Buckwalter, Soleil Tranquilli and Marcia Scott.

Among the aspects they’ll tackle:

* How to determine how much water you currently use to irrigate your landscape.

* What a Water Budget is and how to create one.

* How to use resources to help you determine the actual water needs of your plants.

* How to plan your “hydrozones” so plants with the same water needs are grouped together.

Once you learn those how-to’s, you’ll be ready to help your landscape live more beautifully – even on budget.

Register at: bit.ly/HowMuchH2o

Learn more at https://bewatersmart.info/ .

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An article about gardening.

Keywords:

drought-tolerant plants gardening Sacramento workshop drought events water conservation Regional Water Authority water efficient gardening irrigation

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Dig In: Garden Checklist

For week of June 4:

Because of the comfortable weather, it’s not too late to set out tomato and pepper seedlings as well as squash and melon plants. They’ll appreciate this not-too-hot weather. Just remember to water.

* From seed, plant corn, pumpkins, radishes, melons, squash and sunflowers.

* Plant basil to go with your tomatoes.

* Transplant summer annuals such as petunias, marigolds and zinnias.

* It’s also a good time to transplant perennial flowers including astilbe, columbine, coneflowers, coreopsis, dahlias, rudbeckia, salvia and verbena.

* Let the grass grow longer. Set the mower blades high to reduce stress on your lawn during summer heat. To cut down on evaporation, water your lawn deeply during the wee hours of the morning, between 2 and 8 a.m.

* Tie up vines and stake tall plants such as gladiolus and lilies. That gives their heavy flowers some support.

* Dig and divide crowded bulbs after the tops have died down.

* Feed summer flowers with a slow-release fertilizer.

* Mulch, mulch, mulch! This “blanket” keeps moisture in the soil longer and helps your plants cope during hot weather.

* Thin grapes on the vine for bigger, better clusters later this summer.

* Cut back fruit-bearing canes on berries.

* Feed camellias, azaleas and other acid-loving plants.

* Trim off dead flowers from rose bushes to keep them blooming through the summer. Roses also benefit from deep watering and feeding now. A top dressing of aged compost will keep them happy. It feeds as well as keeps roots moist.

* Pinch back chrysanthemums for bushier plants with many more flowers in September.

Send us a gardening question, a post suggestion or information about an upcoming event. sacdigsgardening@gmail.com