Watering Shrubs Neccesary Daily in NE USA?
 

I live in the NE USA and my front landscape consists of arborvitae's,
junipers, holley's, a bloodgood, a cherry blossom, various small plants,
etc. These all sit on the NE side of my home that gets mostly half sun/half
shade. The cherry blossom and bloodgood gets more sun, in the range of about
3/4 sun and 1/4 shade.

Recently, I setup a neat little Nelson sprinkler system surrounding these
shrubs and set a timer to sprinkle them twice a day at 7am and 7pm, for 15
minutes each session.

Should I be watering these shrubs this often, this long, or at all?

That kind of watering practice leads to a very shallow root system with
no real drought resistance.
It would be better to have it lay down an inch of water in the morning
so and it can dry off of the foliage whenever you see the soil is dry.
Wet foliage overnight is a bad practice.
Maybe 2" this time around it's been dry here.
Increasing the organic material in your soil and adding a mulch wll
also help preserve soil moisture.

If the shrubs are established (ie, if they have been in the ground for 2-3
years), they probably don't need any supplemental water at all. (Except
perhaps in a prolonged drought - 3 weeks or more without rain). If they are
newly planted, they should get an inch of water a week, every week that you
don't get a rain storm where you are. After one year, they shouldn't need to
be irrigated anymore, unless several weeks go by without rain. All of this
is predicated on the idea that the plants are not underneath the eaves of
the house. If they are underneath the eaves, then you need to water them
regularly.
"Billy" wrote in message
...
I live in the NE USA and my front landscape consists of arborvitae's,
junipers, holley's, a bloodgood, a cherry blossom, various small plants,
etc. These all sit on the NE side of my home that gets mostly half sun/half
shade. The cherry blossom and bloodgood gets more sun, in the range of
about 3/4 sun and 1/4 shade.

Recently, I setup a neat little Nelson sprinkler system surrounding these
shrubs and set a timer to sprinkle them twice a day at 7am and 7pm, for 15
minutes each session.

Should I be watering these shrubs this often, this long, or at all?

Ok, yes, they are established (2+ years). I just thought that a daily
watering would make them appear more robust during the hot summer months,
especially during a drought. However, I also have flowers under eaves which
I'm going to setup sprinklers for too.

One more thing.....Is it possible to plant flowers such as petunias,
marigolds or impatiens at the beginning os summer in June/July? Is this too
late in the season since Spring has already passed and temperatures are
getting hot? These plants will be sitting under these sprinklers and getting
water daily.

"presley" wrote in message
...
If the shrubs are established (ie, if they have been in the ground for 2-3
years), they probably don't need any supplemental water at all. (Except
perhaps in a prolonged drought - 3 weeks or more without rain). If they
are newly planted, they should get an inch of water a week, every week
that you don't get a rain storm where you are. After one year, they
shouldn't need to be irrigated anymore, unless several weeks go by without
rain. All of this is predicated on the idea that the plants are not
underneath the eaves of the house. If they are underneath the eaves, then
you need to water them regularly.
"Billy" wrote in message
...
I live in the NE USA and my front landscape consists of arborvitae's,
junipers, holley's, a bloodgood, a cherry blossom, various small plants,
etc. These all sit on the NE side of my home that gets mostly half
sun/half shade. The cherry blossom and bloodgood gets more sun, in the
range of about 3/4 sun and 1/4 shade.

Recently, I setup a neat little Nelson sprinkler system surrounding these
shrubs and set a timer to sprinkle them twice a day at 7am and 7pm, for
15 minutes each session.

Should I be watering these shrubs this often, this long, or at all?