How to water and fertilize your plants properly

There are many methods to watering your garden and plants and each one has its benefits. Whether you're maintaining your flower garden or trying to grow a row of trees, here are some simple tips to keep in mind to help your water and fertilize the right way.

• New plants benefit from watering often enough to keep the soil barely moist during their first season in the ground, because they are growing on skimpy roots.
• After a few weeks or months, depending on the growth rate of the plants, you can water less frequently.
• Plants with mature, extensive root systems usually do a good job of finding the water they need deep within the soil.
• Plants that are mulched during the growing season need minimal supplemental water because the mulch shades the soil, keeping it cool and reducing evaporation of moisture just below the soil's surface.

• Whether you are watering young plants or established ones, it's important that the water you provide soaks deeply into the soil.
• When only the top few centimetres (or inch or two) are dampened, roots will gravitate towards the soil's surface, and plants with extensive surface roots dry out more quickly during droughts than those with deep, water-seeking roots.
• Providing a small trickle of water over several hours is usually better for plants than watering them with a strong shower for a few minutes.

Most garden centres and discount stores sell soaker hoses, which are inexpensive, perforated hoses with tiny holes that slowly drip water along the length of the hose.

• You can snake soaker hoses between your plants and disguise them by covering them with mulch.
• Soaker hoses made from recycled tires are weatherproof and can be left in the garden all year long.

There are only a couple of tricks to using soaker hoses. The first is to turn the water pressure on very low, so that the water weeps out evenly along the entire length of the hose. And, where possible, lay the hose on an incline so that the end is below the height of the faucet, so that gravity will help the water drain from it efficiently.

Except for large shrubs and trees, nearly every plant in your garden will benefit from being fertilized at the right time, with the right kind and amount of fertilizer. And almost all plants need nutrients most at that time of the year when they are in their most active period of green growth or are producing flower buds.