Over watered lavender?

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• Athelas Posts: 946

  June 2022 edited June 2022

  Hmmm it does look over watered. How do the top few inches of soil feel like? I must admit I now use a cheap moisture meter from Amazon to check, and only water (non-lavender) plants when it’s dry.

  
  

  How often / how much have you been watering? Maybe hold off for a bit. 

  
  

  I seem to remember watering my lavender hedge once a week or every two weeks (though I often forgot, and also went away on holiday for a while) perhaps in the first 3 months when it was newly planted in July 2017. I didn’t check ground moisture or anything, I had no gardening experience at the time — plus it was a bit of a faff with 50+ plants and the hose didn’t reach that long outside the house to where they were, so they hardly got any water, and they all survived. I’ve only ever had to replace one plant since then, which a passerby had ripped out last year…
  
  Hope yours will be ok soon!
  
  P.S. If you see any of these little critters I suggest squishing them on sight (no sprays). They’re rosemary beetles and — at least where I am — they can multiply very quickly and munch on lavender. 

  
  

  https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/oct/23/beetle-pest-rosemary-sage-lavender-herbs-specieswatch
  
  
  

  Cambridgeshire, UK

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• welshcake Posts: 118

  June 2022

  Thanks @Athelas.  I swear this Lavender hedge will be the death of me 🤣🤣  I spent days digging out all the clay soil and massively improving it before refilling the 7 metre trench and then bagging up all the old soil as a neighbour wanted it.  I planted the lavender in mounds to make sure that they wouldn't reach as far down as the clay soil beneath my improved soil once they got growing.  The mounds then washed away with the rain and/or hose so I redid them once and then last night added more soil to the trench so there are no longer any mounds to wash away!  
  
  I think I probably have overdone the watering but wasn't sure if that was the issue. Good to know that it is - they look a bit dry on top so it's tempting to think they need water and I'm still very much at the learning how to garden stage!  I read that they should be watered 1-2 times a week as they are new/small but we've also had some heavy rain in between so between me and the weather, they've very likely had too much.  We've got sunny/dry weather for at least the next few days so I'll just leave them and hopefully they will perk up. 
  
  The soil wasn't soaking when I checked it under one of the plants last night but it was definitely damp. I am sure I have one of those moisture meters so I'll start using it around the whole garden to determine when to water.  They are in a sunny spot so I've been looking at how dry the soil appears at  the top but not checking further down. 
  
  Thanks for the heads up about the rosemary beetles too.  I'm currently fighting a war with elder aphids so hopefully won't have to deal with beetles too 😁   

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• welshcake Posts: 118

  July 2022

  @Athelas
  Thanks so much for your advice on the lavenders - I thought you'd like to know that they are doing really well now after following your suggestions.  I completely stopped all watering as we had a lot of dry days with some rain so I thought that would be enough for them.  They have really perked up and grown lots, with flower heads on most of them and buds on the rest.  I'm going to give them a water this morning as we haven't had rain all week and we've got the heatwave for the next few days. I tested the moisture levels this morning and it's only showing as moist further into the ground than their roots will be.
  
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• Athelas Posts: 946

  July 2022

  Lovely update @welshcake, they’re looking great and will soon make a fantastic hedge!

  Cambridgeshire, UK

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