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DCL
If you're a greenie, a locavore, a green thumb or a money-saver, then you probably have a garden. You can grow a mad amount of vegetables in a backyard garden, using only a few feet of land. Growing food is so much cheaper than paying for it. In the cases where you can harvest seeds from your garden, you can grow food for free indefinitely.
But what happens if your garden encounters a rough patch? What do you do when the rain doesn't come? Good news, The Brooklyn Botanical Garden has a few tips.
8 Ways to Get Your Garden Through a Drought
1. Water in the mornings
Water will evaporate in sunshine. Watering at night isn't as good because water left on plant leaves overnight can lead to fungal disease.
2. Water the soil, not the leaves
It is highly suggested that you water more deeply as opposed to more often. An easy way to do this is to take a pop bottle, cut the bottom off and put the bottle mouth-first into the soil next to the plant. Funnel the water to the roots.
3. Use mulch and compost
Mulch locks in moisture and compost adds moisture. Do both and you'll have healthy plants.
4. Don't use pesticides Think plants like pesticides? Think again. Plants tolerate pesticides, but they also stress the plants out. 5. Do not plant anything big during a drought Wait until moisture is more plentiful before trying to put those new shrubs in. 6. Choose plants with a tolerance for drought Plants with silvery, hairy, or fuzzy leaves (such as woolly thyme, Thymus pseudolanuginosus), succulent leaves (such as rose moss, Portulaca species), or leaves with a waxy coating (such as ivy-leaved geranium, Pelargonium peltatum) are good choices. Plants with long taproots, such as butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa), are good choices as well. 7. Stop mowing Mowing causes water loss. Don't fertilize it either. Let your lawn be. 8. Use grey water on your lawn Water with detergents must be used sparingly and not at all on food-bearing plants. Got a tip or a post idea for us to write about on Planet Green? Email pgtips (at) treehugger (dot) com.
