Learning to Leave Things Alone (Loving It to Death)
Another one where I tell on myself, because it's the fastest way to make the point.
Second spring after I put in that first bed along the south fence, I got a flat of native seedlings from the nursery. Little things, an inch or two tall, penstemon and some kind of buckwheat. I babied those seedlings like they were tomato starts. Watered them every day, sometimes twice if it was hot. Figured more water, faster growth, everybody wins.
I killed every single one. Not from drought. From drowning them in kindness.
That's what nobody warns you about with a low-water yard. The hard part isn't remembering to water. It's remembering not to. Our instinct, especially if you grew up watering a lawn or babying tomatoes, is that a struggling plant needs more water right now. With natives and adapted plants, most of the time it needs you to walk away.
Why this happens
Plants that belong here evolved to survive on what falls out of the sky, which in Utah County is not much. Keep the soil surface damp all the time and the roots never have a reason to go looking for water. They stay shallow, right up near the top where it's easy. Then the first hot week in July, or the first week you go on vacation and the drip system hiccups, those shallow roots have nothing to work with and the plant folds.
A plant with deep roots can ride out a dry stretch because it's already down where the soil holds moisture longer. A plant you've been loving to death with the hose has no such backup plan.
What to actually do about it
The practical version, stuff you can do this week.
First year, water deeper and less often than feels right. I covered the deep-and-rare watering philosophy a couple lessons back, and this is the same idea applied to brand new plants. For a new one-gallon planting, soak it well at planting time, then don't touch it again for four or five days even if the top inch of soil looks dry. The top inch is supposed to look dry. That's not the part you're growing roots for.
Check the plant, not the calendar. Instead of watering on a schedule, stick a finger two or three inches into the soil near the root ball. Still damp down there, leave it alone. Sounds obvious once you hear it and almost nobody does it, myself included for longer than I'd like to admit.
Expect the plant to sulk. My son Travis put in a xeriscape at his place in Lehi after seeing mine, and he called me three times that first month convinced everything was dying. It wasn't dying. It was establishing, which for a lot of native plants looks like sulking. Slow top growth, maybe a little wilt in the afternoon heat, not much you can see. All that time the energy's going down, into roots, not up into leaves. I talked him off the ledge three separate times. Year two his yard took off and now he barely waters it.
Resist the urge to fertilize your worries away. A stressed-looking plant makes you want to feed it or water it more. Usually the answer with these plants is patience, not intervention. Give it the season before you decide something's wrong.
The lavender that won't quit
I'll tell on Marian a little here too, in a good way. One Mother's Day years back she planted three lavender bushes by the front walk, more or less on a whim, no soil prep to speak of, no special watering plan. Those three lavenders have outlived every single thing I've deliberately, carefully, thoughtfully put in the ground since. I fuss over my plantings. She stuck three lavenders in the dirt and walked away, and they're still going strong.
I pretend to be a little annoyed about this. I'm not actually annoyed about this. It's the best proof I've got that sometimes the plant just wants you to leave it be.
One real caution. "Leave it alone" is not the same as "never check on it." A brand new plant in its first two or three weeks still needs that initial soak and maybe one follow-up watering to get settled, especially if you planted in warmer weather. What I'm talking about is what happens after that, once it's in the ground and rooting. Don't confuse hands-off with neglect. There's a difference between letting a plant find its own roots and forgetting it exists.
Before next time
Pick one plant in your yard, new or established, and do the finger test before you water it this week. Just see what you find down there before you decide it's thirsty. 👍