Fran Farmer wrote:
....
Sadly that doesn't work. All the water does is to run off below the
mulch/shredded stuff on top. I'll give a specific example even though
it applies in many places in my garden

I planted some blueberry bushes this year and although they are coping
with the heat and baking sunlight and even growing a bit and putting on
new leaves slowly, I decided that they needed a larger root run rather
than the area close to their newly planted holes.

They've always had a big area of mulch around them but I tried to water
over the bigger area and all the water did was to run off once the
watering extended beyond the 'saucer' area in which the bushes had been
planted.

scrape a bit of an edge up to hold the water in or
make the saucers larger?


Where you live, you probably need to plant on mounds so that water round
the roots runs off, here it's imperative to plant in saucer shaped
depressions to keep water near the roots.

yes, most of the plants here need dryer than what they
get and the risks of flooding make it pretty normal for
us to put most plants up on hills or mounds or raised
beds.

from what you wrote in the other response you have
a lot of fine dust. that would be tough to get
wetted again.

i'd still make sure there was mulch on top and then
make sure to spray that mulch (not putting water through
it) so that it can slowly drip down on the soil below.
from your description you say the water goes right
through the mulch and runs off the soil. to me that
says you are using too much water and pouring it
through the mulch. instead, use a fine mist to keep
wetting the mulch. spray it several times a day.


songbird