Planting flowers or gardening? (house, buy, landlord)

[CavwifeyCarly]

Well I love planting flowers and managed to plant several different types but my question is how often does everyone water their flowers and what time of day? I'm finding that I need to water certain plants twice a day while others are fine with every other day. I'm not used to living in a low humidity environment and I'm sure thats why I need to water more often then I'm used to. Also any advice would be great. I'm pretty good at maintaining my flowers but I'm still looking at ways to improve my gardening skills.

I have been watering morning and night for some of the flowers or else they start to look sad and flop over, as soon as I give them water they stand back up and look great. Also what do you feed your plants to get them to grow bigger?

[mtngigi]

Something you might want to do is investigate the kinds of plants that do well in this area and don't require a lot of watering, otherwise you end up with the watering bill from hell! Do a search, you'll find lots of information. Oh, and a rain dance now and then can't hurt.

Can't beat Scott's Miracle-Gro for feeding your plants.

[Bob from down south]

Originally Posted by CavwifeyCarly

Well I love planting flowers and managed to plant several different types but my question is how often does everyone water their flowers and what time of day? I'm finding that I need to water certain plants twice a day while others are fine with every other day. I'm not used to living in a low humidity environment and I'm sure thats why I need to water more often then I'm used to. Also any advice would be great. I'm pretty good at maintaining my flowers but I'm still looking at ways to improve my gardening skills.

I have been watering morning and night for some of the flowers or else they start to look sad and flop over, as soon as I give them water they stand back up and look great. Also what do you feed your plants to get them to grow bigger?

A lot of places, especially out on the east side of town, have soil that is essentially alpine desert sand. Best way to keep plants alive in it is to water lightly, but 3-4 times a day. The water passes right through the sand, so anything more than needed to just moisten the top layer passes right through in minutes. If you have a french drain system around your house and notice the sump pump running a lot, you're probably overwatering.

[otowi]

This all sounds crazy to me. I've lived here all my life and grown lots of things and I never water more than a few times a week. When you first plant something, water it immediately. Then watch for "droop". Otherwise, just twice a week on hot weeks or once a week on wet weeks, at the most, has always been enough for me and my plants!

[mtngigi]

Originally Posted by otowi

This all sounds crazy to me. I've lived here all my life and grown lots of things and I never water more than a few times a week. When you first plant something, water it immediately. Then watch for "droop". Otherwise, just twice a week on hot weeks or once a week on wet weeks, at the most, has always been enough for me and my plants!

Wet weeks .... ?? Are you kidding, lol? If I only watered my flowers twice a week they would be poor specimens indeed. You must get more rain that I do.

[otowi]

I mean that if it rains that week, I will skip a watering - unless the rain didn't amount to anything. But during our monsoon season, short that it is, I can often skip at least one of the two waterings in a week. I still enjoy green grass and plenty of flowers in my garden, as well as vegetables. I'm not trying to grow tropical plants, though, either!

[otowi]

Just as a follow-up - according to the Colorado Master Gardeners of El Paso County:

Water in the evening and early morning when temperatures are cooler and wind is minimal. Check the soil moisture before you water. Insert a 6-inch screw driver into the soil. If it goes in easily, do not water - water is not needed. Skip watering on days following 1/2 inch or more of rain. On cloudy, cool days, plants use less water. Water deeply and infrequently. Shallow and frequent watering causes the death of deep roots leaving only those near the surface. Surface roots are very susceptible to drought conditions. Ideally, water should provided to the root zones of plants, no deeper. (annuals 2-3 inches, perennials 4-10 inches, shrubs 6-10 inches, turfgrass 6-8 inches, trees 8-12 inches). Water slowly. Clay soils have more runoff than sandy soils. Sprinklers should not apply more water than can be absorbed during a cycle. If runoff or puddling occurs, apply smaller amounts (water more slowly). Hand water small or isolated spots.

[Marcy1210]

If you have an automatic sprinkler system, you might consider adding a drip system to the flower beds or small risers that spray a mist rather than heavy watering. If you don't have an automatic system, you can buy soaker hoses at any home improvement center like Lowes or Home Depot and then hook them up to an outdoor faucet and water that way. The water won't evaporate so quickly and it won't run off. Fertilize every couple of weeks or according to the package instructions using something like Miracle Gro.

[CavwifeyCarly]

Thanks everyone for the advice. After a couple of days of having my plants I can tell which flowers need more water and which don't. Today I purchased more of the flowers that don't need watering everyday. We do have sprinklers but haven't been able to use them since the landlord hasn't gotten them fixed yet but they will be fixed soon. My soil is sandy like and I use miracle grow soil also.

I don't know the name of the flower that need a lot of watering but they are really cheap and I purchased them at walmart but I'm probably gonna rip them up and replace them with flowers that don't require watering 3 times a day. Also these cheap flowers aren't blooming like the other flowers. I guess its just trial and error but everyone compliments me on how great my front yard looks. I only have a problem with the cheap flowers that I bought which are the same kind but I guess you get what you pay for. We also had some huge weeds and I had no idea that weeds had thorns or prickly things on them. Those thorns went right through my cheap garden gloves.

[williamsjanet]

If you want your plants to grow bigger, you should water them lightly and 3-4 times a day. By doing this you will notice that they will look healthier.