Summer Irrigation Can Be a Delicate Dance – 3 Tips for Being a Good Partner
Updated May 2025. By JT Wilkinson. Native gardens make great partners, forever dancing with blooms and seasonal colors, twirling with textures, and nurturing wildlife. While they famously prefer freedom to coddling from caretakers, they can run into trouble when their low-maintenance reputation leads to “set it and forget it” maintenance.
Learning to rock this balance between too much and not enough is worth the investment. We will happily help you learn their ways and share how we modulate our responses to their needs with just three steps.
Here are three steps we take to walk the line native gardens define for their caretakers.
Preemptive Love
Watering on our hottest days can actually result in steam-bathing roots – not a form of self-care California natives enjoy! Native plants “grew up” in a natural climate cycle of cool rain and dry heat. The more we can mimic this environment, the happier they will be. We do this by watching the forecasts and preemptively watering on the coolest days possible.
While trees may seem to be the most stoic members of our garden family, they are the individuals that most benefit from this kind of well-calibrated attention. Their love languages range from individualized hydrozones to hand watering and deep watering stakes.
Morning Affection
Watering in midday heat leads to temper tantrums. Watering as night cools brings torpor – roots sitting in water can rot and attract mosquitos and other pests.
Setting irrigation to run first thing in the morning is ideal. Plants hydrate just in time to bear the heat and, particularly if you’ve hired mulch, the soil will keep its cool throughout the day. By the time night rolls around, the soil will be a pleasant bed.
Don’t Overdo It!
For many of us, this is the hardest part! Years with non-native gardens and turf-grass trained us to see foliage turning yellow or brown as a cry for help. We rush in, pampering plants with more water. This will distress native foliage, which can feel overwhelmed by the added attention. Dial back the irrigation and see if your retreat reengages them.
Hope this helps you navigate summer irrigation, one of the trickiest points in a relationship with native foliage. If you come through the challenge of summer heat together, know you’ll have lush, leafy foliage wrapped around you for years to come.
