What Causes the Most Problems in a Landscape?
- Soil Compaction
- Overwatering
Remember, air space and water space should each take up about 25% of a soil’s volume.
Soil compaction squishes these spaces, and overwatering fills the spaces up with water. Symptoms include increased disease incidence, shallow rooting of plants, nutrient deficiencies, and wasteful water runoff. In other words, a sick and wasteful landscape!
Fun Fact: Overwatering actually causes more damage than underwatering! It also encourages weed growth.
Remedies:
Overwatering:
Easy! Cut back on the watering. You’ll have a healthier landscape if you cut back on the days you water rather than reducing the watering time each day of watering. Soil needs a period of time to dry down (thus creating those important air spaces). Don’t water the same all year long, be sure to change your irrigation schedule throughout the year. Aim to water in the early morning hours to minimize evaporation and wind drift. It is also key to know your soil, know your plants, know your sprinklers, and know your maximum run time for each zone.
Soil Compaction:
Not so easy. If you have a new landscape of bare soil, you can successfully add organic soil amendment to the top six to eight inches. If your landscape is established with plants, you can aerate the soil with spikes or tines (basically poking holes in the soil), but this can damage soil critter networks and the soil aggregates they have formed. Tilling the soil is even worse. The best thing to do is periodically add mulch to the surface of your soil. It will take time (many months), but it will greatly enhance the soil without destroying the soil critters and their networks. To prevent compaction, avoid walking on soil, especially when wet. The soil can squish and stay that way.