Hard Water

The one thing I have learned about gardening here is that I was severely under watering everything at first. This year I amended my ways, put in a self-installed low flow irrigation system to dribble every other day and I have done hand watering of pots and new transplants almost every day. Things look so much better, even the lavenders. Even the "needs no water" desert plants.

The 'Oklahoma' redbud after a rare rain shower

But some things still struggle. And I have found giving lots of water to my plants has created another issue - hard water deposits.

Coming from snowpack tumbling down rocks in the mountains and from deep wells in rocky formations under the Rio Grande, our water picks up a lot of mineral content. We see it all the time in scaly deposits in our sinks, and crusty rings around anything that our water touches. Yuck. It is city water, treated and clean, and it is safe to drink, but naturally high in minerals. (We do use a Brita filter for drinking water.)

I can see the crust forming on my low flow irrigation system, where each little plastic cap has a white film.

Hard water deposits on an irrigation emitter cap

Unless I have the very occasional rain barrel full of nice soft water that fell from from the sky, tap water from the outside faucet is what I use to water my plants. Tap water mineral deposits not only coat my irrigation system, they get in the soil and on roots, and that mineral crust coating roots inhibits water uptake.

Just as some plants can take alkaline soil, some plants can deal with mineral deposits on their roots and still thrive. But some cannot, and the more I water them the more minerals form. A home water softener system removes calcium and magnesium from the water and replaces it with sodium. Good for washing and dispersing soap in the house, but a water softener just adds more salts to plants. Sodium is not good for the garden and a water softener is not the answer.

I water a lot. A lot.

For some of my plants, the extra watering this year has not been helpful, it has actually hurt them. But without water they won't make it either. 

What's a gardener to do when it doesn't rain? It's the same question ancient pueblo civilizations asked just before they moved on to find a wetter climate.