As of the past weekend, the entirety of Calhoun County entered the USDA Drought Monitor designation of D4 – that’s government agency for “Exceptional Drought”. Obviously, we know it’s extremely dry. Farmers are delaying planting of field crops until rain arrives. The danger of wildfire is high, and local authorities have enacted a burn ban with strict penalties for non-compliance. Those of you with recreational ponds may be facing significant fish kills as ponds dry up. While those things all have more significant consequences than the state of our home landscapes, it is nonetheless disappointing seeing your hard work dry up and blow away tumbleweed style. So, what can you do to get your landscape through this rainless rut we’re in? Let’s find out.
Let’s get the easy one out of the way – plants require water. There’s no getting around the need to irrigate to meet your landscape’s minimum water requirements. The definition of minimum water requirement varies quite a bit within landscapes though. Newly installed landscape plants and warm season annuals require more water to stay alive and maintain appearances. These plants don’t yet have an established root system to draw from when times get tough. Water accordingly – several times a week with at least 1” of water per event. Conversely, established landscape plants (trees, shrubs, and perennials that have been growing in your yard for years) can survive relatively long periods of drought. These can get by with water once every week-ten days and still perform well.
Water Smartly. Exceptional droughts don’t just affect the upper layers of soil and surface water bodies – aquifers can become strained during extended severe droughts. We’ve already seen a call for voluntary water use reductions from the Northwest Florida Water Management District once this spring and another could be on the way if conditions persist. To do your part to conserve water resources, try to water early in the morning or in the evening when the hot sun and drying winds have subsided. During these hours, more of the water you apply will infiltrate the soil and provide needed relief to plant roots and less will be lost to evaporation.
Apply Mulch. If you haven’t historically mulched your trees, shrubs, and other landscaped areas, now is a great time to start! Mulch provides a host of benefits to landscapes, not the least of which is improving water retention. Mulch helps improve water infiltration into the soil in three ways – it increases soil organic matter as it breaks down, provides a physical barrier to water moving across the soil’s surface, and significantly lowers the temperature of the soil around plants. All these factors increase the time water has to reach plant roots before it evaporates. Any of pine straw, bark and wood chips, leaves, or other organic materials are perfect for the Panhandle. Avoid rocks, rubber or plastic mulch, or any other non-organic mulch as these don’t break down and they all get hot, negating many of the benefits of mulch!
Review Your Landscapes Performance and Adjust Going Forward. There is no landscape proving ground like an exceptional drought. Take this time to consider which plants in your yard are struggling to make it through the drought stress and are annoyingly needy with respect to water use. In addition to drought, in the last five years, we have also experienced flooding, deep freezes, and more snow events than anyone thought possible. Plants have to be tough to survive around here! Once the drought subsides, it may be time to remove your landscape stragglers and replace them with hardier species (consider natives!) that can stand up to Calhoun County’s extreme weather conditions better. As my dad once told me – “life is too short to struggle with plants that don’t want to grow.”
Eventually, this drought too shall pass. Until then, take care of your landscape plants as best as you can, water wisely, install mulch to retain moisture, and consider replacing heavy water users with hardier plant species. If you have questions regarding your home landscape or any other horticultural or agricultural topic, contact us at the UF/IFAS Extension Calhoun County office.
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