The Heirloom Garden Blog

by Edward Smith

Water is the main con­stituent of cell sap and is really a vital ele­ment for plant well­be­ing. It is nec­es­sary for the process of pho­to­syn­the­sis, whereby water and car­bon diox­ide are trans­formed into food and trans­port nutri­ents for the plant. A good water source is also needed for res­pi­ra­tion, seed ger­mi­na­tion and the devel­op­ment of healthy roots, shoots, foliage, flow­ers and fruits.

When rain (or water) soaks into the soil, it is soaked up by soil par­ti­cles and then extracted from the soil by plant root hairs, together with any other dis­solved nutrients.

Ide­ally, plant life should receive a reg­u­lar sup­ply of water; how­ever, as rain­fall can be unpre­dictable and var­ied, this is hardly ever the case unless of course they are grown in a strictly con­trolled setting.

Too Much Water (Waterlogging)

Poorly drained soils can lead to a build up of water that is very harm­ful to a plant’s well­be­ing. Water­log­ging can lead to asphyx­i­a­tion of the plant’s roots, caus­ing them to per­ish, and unless the site is fit­ted with improved drainage, most crops will fail to establish.

How­ever, some plants are equipped to sur­vive these con­di­tions, includ­ing mar­ginal plants and trees such as wil­low (Salix) or the decid­u­ous conifer — swamp cypress (Tax­odium dis­tichum). It is one of the major trees within the Florida ever­glades, which is also fully hardy here inside the British Isles.

Too Lit­tle Water (Drought)

Too lit­tle water may be more harm­ful to a plant’s devel­op­ment than too much. Although drought is from a tech­ni­cal per­spec­tive a pro­longed period with out rain­fall (usu­ally more than two weeks), plants will begin to suf­fer a long time before this; plant func­tions will slow down, tran­spi­ra­tion is low­ered and the plant will begin to wilt.

Most plants will require addi­tional water­ing dur­ing hot, dry sum­mers, this is espe­cially true if they’re not com­pletely estab­lished. Nonethe­less, if drought may be a reg­u­lar occur­rence, you may want to think about plant­ing cacti and other suc­cu­lents that store water in their leaves, stems or roots which enable them to endure long peri­ods of drought.

Be cau­tious of posi­tion­ing plants near to a wall or fence; soil on the lee­ward side (the side that is shel­tered from the wind) receives much less rain­fall than ground on the wind­ward side. It is known as a ‘rain shadow’. Unless of course you are seek­ing for a really dry loca­tion in which to place plants, stay away from plant­ing root sys­tems closer than 45 cm (18 in) to the bot­tom of the wall.

Improv­ing the Mois­ture Con­tent of Soils

To enhance the drainage of soils:

- Put in man-made drainage. — Dou­ble dig the soil, incor­po­rat­ing organic or inor­ganic mat­ter to help bind the soil par­ti­cles into crumbs. — Con­sider cre­at­ing a raised bed.

To boost the quan­tity of water acces­si­ble to plants:

- Dig in organic and nat­ural mat­ter such as com­post to enhance the soil struc­ture. — Add a mulch layer, such as a 15 cm (6 in) layer of coarse bark or a plas­tic sheet kept in place with pegs. — Elim­i­nate weeds (this reduces the lev­els of com­pe­ti­tion for water and nutri­ents). — Posi­tion plants away from areas of rain shadow.

About the Author

Edward has been writ­ing online and offline for more than 5 years. His lat­est site is about small portable print­ers and the lat­est wire­less portable printer mod­els and deals available.

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