Only Use Cold, Gentle Water

Use a nozzle that offers a gentle rain. Always check the temp of the water as it comes out of the hose to make sure it's cold. As the temperatures rise, the first water out of the hose can be burning hot - even early in the day.

Just Water the Ground

Try to water in the evening. If you are watering during the day, don't water the leaves (it confuses the plants, as they open themselves to the water just to be burned by the sun). Only water the ground around the plants.

First Three Nights

Please water everything the first two nights after planting - starting evening of the planting day. This is crucial for the plants to survive and thrive. (Trees/shrubs with rain-diapers will not need a third night.)

Helpful Tip: If a plant looks especially sad, you can leave the hose on a sloooow flow directly into the center of the plant. Leave it on for 15-20 minutes. Just make sure it doesn’t overflow the basin.

Fill the Ring (and Again)

Unless you are using TreeDiapers, there will be basins around the trees (called “mulch rings”) to catch and hold water. Fill the basin, pause and wait for the water to go down, then finish watering. If you overfill the ring, the water will run downslope or across the lawn.

Helpful tip: Water all the plants from east to west (for example), then west to east. This gives a natural pause to each plant, to allow it to finish drinking. Depending on how long you spend with each plant, you can do this twice.

Shade, Shade, Shaaaade

Use what you have to provide shade. For smaller plants, I use cardboard “hats” to create shade. These can be left on for a few days, even if they look like they’re smooshing the plant a little.

Helpful tip: When plants look sad, use what you have to provide shade - cardboard, large pots (if plastic, these need to be next to the plant, *not* over them), benches, etc. Any amount of shade helps!

Time to Dry

Plants cannot handle being watered every day; their roots will suffer (think of how your hands get pruney after a bath). After the initial 3-day watering spree, give the roots time to dry out between waterings. For trees/ shrubs, this means watering 2x a week; for smaller plants, this means watering 3x a week (once everything looks established, this can drop to 2x a week).

1" a Week

New trees/shrubs need an inch of rain a week, or 10 gallons of water. Unless you are using a TreeDiaper, this is 5 gallons 2x a week. If you are using a TreeDiaper, fill whenever it gets low.

Helpful tip: Time yourself filling up a 5-gallon bucket, and see how long that takes you. This is how long you need to water 2x a week.

There’s Rain and Then There’s Rain

Often rain is not heavy enough to replace a watering. It can be, but you have to know how much rain actually fell. This is more of an art than a science. I recommend looking at the weather (https://www.wunderground.com) and noticing the depth of each rain. A light drizzle of .01" does nothing, for example, but a rain of .5" is a solid half an inch.

Helpful tip: Weather apps only tell how much rain is predicted to fall. Sometimes the reality is much less. If you want to know for sure, set up a rain gauge in your garden. There are some cool ones out there.

Homework Before TV

If your plants look wilty, and the other steps don’t help (or, if you don’t want to make cardboard hats), you can remove the flowers from the plants by gently stripping them off. This encourages the plants to focus on their homework (their roots) before watching tv (flowering).

Into The Fall

The biggest reason new trees/shrubs experience winter stress is because they were not watered late into the fall. Keep watering until the ground is frozen.