Home arrow Gardening with Native Plants
How to Water in the Summer
Fallugia paradoxa
Apache Plume (B. Eisenstein)
As the heat turns on and California native plants slow down, so should your watering. During a plant’s first few years in your garden, anywhere from one to three, you must check it often. Water it enough to keep it going, since its root system is not fully developed, yet not so much that it puts on unsustainable, excess growth or succumbs to fungal and bacterial diseases. As your garden matures, it requires less attention. Depending on your plant choices, areas with established plants can be watered about once a month or less during the summer. Some plants like flannel bush (Fremontodendron species), should get no summer water at all.

Because conditions vary from garden to garden, and even within gardens, the best irrigation schedule is determined by watching your plants. In my garden, I manually set each zone on the controller. Beds with new plants receive water approximately once a week, although this depends entirely on how they look. If they are drooping and the soil near their roots is dry, I water them, making sure that the entire root system gets wet. New plants placed among established natives are watered by hand, as needed.