Watering Landscaping - How Much?

lucky760

lucky760

New member
So our landscaping was completed last week and our landscaper setup the automatic timer to water daily for 4 minutes. This sounded liked an awful lot of watering to me, especially after reading some posts months ago here on TI where people said even 4 days a week for 2 minutes might be too much.

We've done some research online about how much we should be watering because we're very worried we're going to kill everything. Info on our specific breeds of trees say they should be watered weekly. General info about gardens with flowers also tend to say watering should be done weekly.

Of course, that's not a hard rule because if the soil gets too dry too soon, you should water again, but still we're concerned about what we should really be doing. Everything says water too much and everything will die, and water too little and everything will die. How do we figure out how much is just right?

How much and how often do you water your landscaping and what type of plants do you have?

We have two trees, several star jasmine vines, lots of bush-type plants (like sweet pea, lantana, lavender, etc.), and many little flowers (like begonias, kimono, etc.). Our soil seems to be very clay-like and after watering last on Friday, it still looks like it's moist in most areas, but not all areas.

Should we really water just once a week? Or do it regularly once a week but use a hose to water small areas that seem to be dry before the next automatic watering? When should we start using fertilizer? And how often? And is there a particular type we need?

Sorry if I seem lost, confused, and rambling, but that's where we are right now.  :-X

Thanks for any wisdom you veteran gardeners can impart!
 
Suggested-Weekly-Irrigation-Schedule.jpg

http://www.irwd.com/alwayswatersmart/weekly-irrigation-schedule.html
 
I water our plants three days a week for 5 minutes each time and our plants are doing well.  When you say your soil looks like clay, did they not use topsoil and cover it with mulch? That's another thing, when the mulch looks like its dry and you did underneath it you will see that the soil is still nice and moist, which is why you probably should not be watering daily. Given the location of your plants, behind your sitting wall and on the side of your house they will be getting very little sun, another reason you probably shouldn't water more than three times a week. Good luck.
 
If the total watering time for the week is the same, is there a difference between watering daily versus 4 days a week? I'd assume that it'd be better to spread the watering out over all 7 days rather than drown them for a day and let them come up for air the next day. But I know very little about gardening and my horrible looking landscaping is proof of that.  I've been watering my grass and plants for 3 minutes/day everyday.
 
@qwerty - No, they didn't cover with any apparent mulch, per se. He just covered all our existing soil with his own homegrown soil. It looks like the clay soil underneath their soil is pretty consistently moist still even though I haven't watered since Friday.

@No Quarter - Thanks for the detailed expert advice! Those are some very helpful pointers. I just ordered a soil moisture meter (the one that looks like a lady bug). We'll be paying close attention to how things progress and checking any yellow leaves we find.

 
That's a very excellent point about needing to soak all the existing soil at first. It makes a lot of sense and I simply hadn't considered it.

This TI is a wealth of vital information thanks to knowledgeable people like yourself willing to dispense with such sound advice. Thanks!

[edit]
Follow-up question: At what point should we consider starting to apply fertilizer to help with the situation and the landscaping's ongoing health? And is there anything we should know about fertilizer, such as what kind to use or how much, etc.?

Thanks again!
 
lucky said:
@qwerty - No, they didn't cover with any apparent mulch, per se. He just covered all our existing soil with his own homegrown soil. It looks like the clay soil underneath their soil is pretty consistently moist still even though I haven't watered since Friday.
Click to expand...

Can you post a picture?  I wonder if his 'soil' is basically mulch.  I guessing is a dark brown very fine woody mix, probably looking like about 1/2 inch long little pieces of dark 'earth' stained toothpick slivers?  The difference between commercial top soil, compost and mulch are often pretty much just asthetics and the size of the wood chips in the mulch.  Most commercial top soil and compost mixes are almost as nutrient poor as just finely ground mulch.

The IRWD reminded me I need to adjust my sprinklers and compost the living daylights out of my hell strip.  It's baking up and the soil looks like concrete. 

Three cycles of watering will take over two hours to complete though.  Each cycle is suppose to gap an hour and you're not suppose to water.  You're also not suppose to water too late after sunrise or you cook your plants with water on them in the sun and you're not suppose to water in the evening as it increases powdery mildew and other wilts like fusarium.  So basically, water at 6AM...

I wonder if I can get a CALscape rebate to redo my hell strip?

 
I had no idea that sprinkler schedules could be so complicated. I wonder why my gardener never adjusts my sprinklers.

So I should be turning on the sprinklers 4 days a week, for 3 minutes at a time at 6 AM, 7 AM, and 8 AM? That's a lot of water! I'll have to wear my rain boots to get to my car.
 
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