It's awfully dry out there

A few weeks ago, meteorological pontificaters were carrying on about how this had been the coolest, wettest summer in decades. But it has hardly rained at all lately; according to the Illinois State Climatologist's office, northeastern Illinois has had just 4 percent of normal precipitation in the last 30 days. And today's weather page offers no hope of more than scattered sprinkles for the next week, at least.

So in the last week or so, for the first time all summer, I've been watering. Fortunately, the temperatures really were cool this summer; we didn't have any of that blasting, bloom-killing heat in August, and I've still got plenty of bloom going--not just Japanese anemones, but impatiens and roses and nicotiana. The impatiens are a handy soil moisture gauge. If they look wilty it's time to stick a finger in the soil and see if I can feel dampness. Ten days ago the tip of my finger came up dry, so I started watering.

A lot of people forget to water in fall every year. They just sort of lose interest in the garden, or figure that because the blooms have faded the plants are done for the season. But fall is an important root-building time, and that takes water. Plants need to be working on growing feeder roots and storing water for the winter. It's especially critical for trees and shrubs that have been planted in the last couple of years, but all woody plants and perennials -- including fall-planted bulbs -- need watering until the ground freezes.

My goal is to water long and deep and not too often, so the water gets down into the soil and encourages the roots to reach. I use a timer attached between the hose and sprinkler that I can set to cut off after an hour or 90 minutes, so I don't have to hang around. I often set the sprinkler up in the morning on my way out somewhere.

I use a combination of soaker hoses and pattern sprinklers. It's an odd-shaped yard, so I am constantly finagling to try and get the water only where I want it and not on the sidewalk.

This year I haven't watered the lawn once. It's not a whole lot of lawn, and I'm not aiming for a putting green. So I let it fend for itself, except for an occasional compost dressing and reseeding with mixes that include a lot of drought-tolerant fescues.

The grass hardly even went dormant this season, and when reseeding and patching time came in late August I couldn't find any bare spots. That's the kind of lawn to aspire to: the kind that thrives on total neglect, doesn't grow so fast it needs mowing too often, needs no watering except rain and doesn't take up any more space than necessary.

Got a garden question? I recommend you call or e-mail the Plant Clinic of The Morton Arboretum in Lisle, the Master Gardeners of the University of Illinois Extension or the Plant Information Service of the Chicago Botanic Garden in Glencoe .

All contents of this post are copyright Beth Botts. Feel free to link or share a brief excerpt with a link, but please do not reproduce photos or any other part of this blog without my express permission.