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The Village
of Mount Prospect’s Forestry/Grounds staff is anxiously watching the skies
for any sign of much-needed rainfall. The lack of precipitation combined
with very high temperatures has seriously stressed many landscape plants,
especially recent plantings, according to Forestry/Grounds Superintendent
Sandy Clark.
“Our
watering crews have been putting in a lot of extra hours to try to keep
public plantings watered,” she said. “Besides our usual two watering
trucks, we’ve been renting an extra watering truck and borrowing two
“flusher trucks” whenever possible from other Public Works Divisions. Even
with these efforts, though, with more than 24,000 trees on Village parkways
we need help from citizens when we have conditions like this.” Clark said
that unfortunately the hot dry weather this spring began shortly after the
Village had planted more than 200 parkway trees, 13,000 annual flowers,
2000+ perennials, and assorted shrubs and sod. “It’s been a real challenge
to try to keep these plants alive,” she stated, “since our last significant
rainfall was in mid-May.”
Clark
agrees with the following recommendations which were recently distributed by
the Morton Arboretum:
- Depending
on air temperatures, trees and shrubs need at least 1 inch of water applied
every week to 10 days to cope with lack of rain. Larger, established trees
have a wide-spreading root system and need not be watered as frequently,
perhaps every 2 to 3 weeks. Let the top few inches of soil dry out between
waterings to avoid saturation and to allow roots and soil organisms to
breathe.
- Water
slowly and deeply so water percolates down into the soil, electing one or
two deep waterings as opposed to several light ones.
- Use
soaker hoses and drip irrigation -- effective watering tools because they
discharge even streams of slow, trickling water directly to the root zone
beneath trees and shrubs. When combined with a 3 or 4-inch layer of organic
mulch, plants can use nearly all of the water that's provided with little
evaporation loss.
- Another
effective means of watering a small tree is letting a hose run slowly at its
base until the ground is moist. For large trees, let the hose run at
various points around the tree's drip line – the imaginary line on the
ground that encircles a tree's extended branches.
- Water
shrubs at the plant base and under the spread of branches until soil is
moistened to a depth of 6 to 8 inches.
- When
using a sprinkler system, place a container nearby to measure when you have
distributed 1 inch of water to the soil.
- Plants
vary in their ability to tolerate water stress. Prioritize watering, caring
for newly transplanted trees and shrubs first, then those that have been in
the ground from 2 to 5 years and have under-developed root systems. Next,
water "specimen" trees or important trees, then all other plants. Note that
lawns may not need watering at all, since grass plants have the ability to
go dormant when dry and green up again when water is available.
- Water
strategically. Plants absorb more water in the early morning, before the
warming sun can cause evaporation.
- Place
barriers or wind screens near plants to slow wind movement, which causes
considerable evaporation and moisture loss. But do not locate screens too
close to plants – this traps heat and promotes evaporation.
- Avoid
using fertilizer during drought conditions. Fertilizer salts can cause root
injury when soil moisture is limited.
Clark reminds citizens that, in
order to conserve the Village's precious water resources, the Village has
year-round watering/sprinkling restrictions. Click
here to view
the restrictions. | 
