Bachelor on the Cheap

It was nice to see a nice gentle rain today.  Despite some lingering sprinkles however, looks like the landscape in my neck of the woods only received about a 1/4 inch of moisture for the day.

For an area that’s still in “D3” Extreme Drought status, that means supplementing Mother Nature with some watering is needed.

Low precipitation amounts, the high winds of Kansas and those fluctuating temperatures can take its toll on a landscape, resulting in a less-than-stellar green spring.

Here are some tips to watering during the winter:

  • Water once or twice per month through March
  • Water when the temperature is at least 40 degrees and ideally, at mid-day. 
  • Watering should be done manually, no hoses, no sprinklers.  If you do use hoses or sprinklers, be sure to disconnect them when the watering is done.  Frozen pipes and equipment is not a good thing.
  • Do NOT water if the ground is frozen or if there is snow cover.

Don’t forget the trees!  By all means hit those newer plantings with water first, as they’ll suffer the most from this drought combined with Kansas winter weather, but don’t forget to give those trees some love!  I’ve got a Magnolia tree in my front yard, it’s actually the first thing I water.  I’ll be darned if I’m going to lose it to winter drought.

February historically is another dry month as far as precipitation, averaging just 4 days of rain.

Happy watering!

~ Mike