Quick Tip: Watering Tips for your City Garden & Houseplants

Did you know the #1 mistake of plants is actually OVER-watering them?  Over-watering causes soil to get so  soggy that oxygen cannot reach the roots, encourages certain bacteria growth and can lead to root rot.

I’ve recently started my back-porch city garden with a deceased pepper plant limited snafus & have reaped 6 tomatoes already!  Unfortunately, my baby desk plant has recently caught the downfall of my ‘learning’ green thumb and was slightly overwatered:

How can you prevent your plants from overwatering? Here’s some tips:

• Try to stay in sync with what plants would get in their natural environments. Some plants need more dry soil, others need consistently moist soil.  Many plants go through phases of growth when they require more or less water.
• Use rainwater or well water. Collect rainwater in a barrel or plastic garbage.
• Tap water is OK if not too hard, but avoid softened water – it contains salt which can build up in soil.
• Water in the morning if possible to give moistened foliage a chance to dry out during the day.
• Water less during a plant’s dormant period. Most plants grow rapidly in spring and summer and require lots of water at this time. During late fall and winter, however, they stop growing and require far less water. The opposite is true for a few plants, which may need little watering in spring and summer, and quite a bit of water during their active period in fall and winter.
• Outdoor plants typically want moist (not soggy) water.  Try to water when temperature is moderate or at night.

If your plants have been over-watered and aren’t drying out – you should either give it sunlight without watering it to absorb or can attempt to take it out of it’s pot and dry the soil.

(Tips courtesy of Better Homes & Gardens)

Posted by Julie

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Julie Hancher is Editor-in-Chief of Green Philly, sharing her expertise of all things sustainable in the city of brotherly love. She enjoys long walks in the park with local beer and greening her travels, cooking & cat, Sir Floofus Drake. View all posts by Julie Hancher