6 Reasons Your Garden Struggles in the Summer Heat

Those of us who live in Perth know very well the meaning of hot and dry. Furthermore, those of us who fall within the spectrum of house proud and avid gardener, have to deal with the added difficulty of keeping our gardens alive and healthy through the summer. And yet it is possible. Any stroll through the neighbourhood reveals the odd garden looking beautiful and lush, like an oasis amid the rest of the street whose gardens sport brown, uninviting lawns.

So what does it take be be the proud owner of your street's oasis? Read on...

1. Water

In Perth many homes use reticulation systems to irrigate the garden. We are allowed to use the reticulation twice a week, and irrigate as often as we like when hand watering. Reticulation is the preferred method as it requires no effort on our part, however there are times when two days a week doesn't seem enough. This is when it pays to turn to wetter (or wetting agents) and water retention agents (or water crystals).

Wetter by breaking surface tension, improves initial water penetration into the soil, reducing surface runoff and thus getting our plants more water.

Water retention agents hold water in the top layer of the soil, where it has greater chance of being taken up by plant roots. Again, our plants get more water.

2. Nutrients

Major elements, including nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) are the main building blocks required by all plants, including native plants.

The convention wisdom regarding native Australian plants is that they are highly sensitive to phosphorous. In fact only a small number of native plant species will show toxicity symptoms, however phosphorous remains an essential nutrient even in these sensitive species. For native plants, a good rule of thumb is to use a fertiliser where the phosphorous level doesn't exceed 3% of the overall fertiliser composition.

These major elements are required in large amounts and an absence in any of them has a huge effect on plant growth. Thus we should turn frequently to a general purpose fertiliser.

3. Micro Nutrients & Trace Elements

Micro nutrients (Ca, Mg, S) and trace elements (Fe, Mn, Cu, Zn, B, Mo) are just as vital as the major elements in that a deficiency can have a disastrous effect on plant growth.

However, such elements are needed in smaller quantities. In the case of trace elements these amounts could be described as minute, and excessive use can do damage to your garden plants. Thus we should turn to wide spectrum fertilisers on a less frequent basis than we do their general purpose counterparts.

4. Bio-stimulants

Bio-stimulants include compounds, substances and microorganisms that operate through different mechanisms to fertilisers (and are therefore complementary) to improve plant vigour and tolerance to stress. For example, bio-stimulants are naturally occurring in various seaweeds.

Thus in times of extreme weather, it pays to turn to concentrated seaweed extract and such related treatments in order to combat the heat.

5. Simultaneous Application

From the above, you may have noticed that what is required is enough of everything. But our gardening efforts are often contrary to this. We fertilise one month and apply wetter two months later. Thus when sufficient nutrients are available there is insufficient water for uptake and visa versa.

Thus we must seek to avoid both excesses and deficiencies of treatments, otherwise we'll find ourselves maddened by a lack of results.

6. Persistent Application

Plant needs, like our own, are persistent. They never cease and cannot be catered for by infrequent treatments. Considering typical dosages, the majority of fertiliser isn't taken up by plant roots and leaches out of our soils and into our waterways.

Thus we need to apply smaller amounts of treatment, more often.

IrriGator Can Help

I hear you! You want a lush garden but the time, cost and effort required to achieve this seems extravagant. Watch the video below to learn how IrriGator was designed to take all of the above into consideration, in order to create the most simple, most effortless and cheapest solution we could: