Well, I've only had to water once, so far. I think it pays to take a long time and water deeply at the roots. I get all antsy, too, feeling like I'm using up too much time..... But I think if you sort of make peace with the idea that it will take a while, you can water -- and pull a few weeds at the same time. Also observe what's happening while you water -- are any plants needing division? Any plants that need a little fertilizer? Any that you would like to move to a new place in the fall?

A good deep drink will do your plants a lot of good -- and maybe you won't have to do it so often! But it sounds like if you are spending 2 hours, you are doing just that.

I guess just enjoy it if you can :) and pray for some good, soaking afternoon showers!!!!! We really need one in my garden, too!

:)

I have several areas in my yard which are still sopping wet! I mulched them with cardboard and tons of straw/leaves and they are sticky wet. The more cultivated areas get a bit dry, but they still are OK because mostly they have several inches of mulch.

Do you mulch?

Yeah I mulch but I don't think it's as much as I should - I'm from up north so mulching is new to me - when I first put mulch down it looks like it's enough then it ends up disappearing :) - I use pine bark and pine needles - the ones that are really stressed are some hydrangeas that I planted last spring - Lady in Red - I really wanted these things - they are under oak trees and while the other plants I have in the same bed seem to be doing fine - by the third day I need to water these again (the leaves flop) - there is enough shade - I will put more mulch around them maybe that will help me - thanks for your responses!

Mulch really helps, but there is always competition from other plants (like the oak tree). And some plants are thirstier than others (like hydrangeas).

Watering deeply less often helps as it a) gets more water deeper down, and b) helps the plant learn to send roots down for water. Getting water on the leaves is not a problem, that is another way that plants take in water and good to do when they are stressed.

Oh okay that's good to know! Just make sure that if I do water the leaves it's early morning so they have chance to dry off - right?

Yes, you are right. I should have mentioned that.

I was thinking about this earlier. I have a shrub under a maple tree. Bad idea, I know, because maples are especially thirsty. In the summer, this shrub droops almost every day. Tuesday night it rained quite a bit. Because ALL the ground got watered and deeply enough, it had no issues yesterday at all nor is it drooping today. So that shows what a GOOD watering can do - not just watering the hole that the plant itself is in.

jardinera -- are you getting rain this morning? I was bummed because there was no rain predicted for us for the next week! Even on the day when we had an 80% chance, we got not a drop!
Now this morning -- on a day with only a slim chance of rain -- we are getting dumped on! Hooray!!!!!!!
I hope it is coming your way, and giving you a big drink!

when i woke up this morning it looked like we already had gotten a good soaking and still some drizzling I'm in covington - before I left to work I passed by the garden and everyone looked happy! Yeyyy!! I'm going to try to get some extra mulch down and see if that keeps them happy!