Have you ever heard a gardener say to “water deeply” and wondered what that meant? You’re not alone. This is a question we get often here at the garden center.

Here’s what you should know about watering in the Treasure Valley:

Watering deeply means that you are going to put way more water at the roots of a plant than you think you should. Now this is important, so don’t miss this – please don’t BLAST your plants with water all at once. I’m impatient too, so I get it, but watering deeply is most effective when also watering slowly.

Not sure if you watered deep enough? We have a trick for that. Take a screwdriver and insert it several inches into the soil where you’ve watered (careful of the root structure!). Take the screwdriver out and look at it. If the screwdriver is wet, you’ve watered deeply.

If the soil underneath the surface is super dry, it’s not watered well. Folks with indoor houseplants can use this trick too – most of them use their hand and check the soil moisture with their finger.

Your soil is a huge factor for watering. For the typical, unamended Southern Idahoan’s soil, you might hear the general advice is to water deeply and infrequently. Most established plants that are already in our compacted, nutrient-poor soil are already acclimated to the environment and this watering technique will work for them.

For example, a garden bed with plants that have been living in Idaho soil and climate for over a year will typically tolerate just one deep watering a week. They’ve had time to get used to our unique conditions.

Your annual pots with a dedicated blend of bagged soil mix? Different story. These guys will need water once a day, and sometimes twice a day on extreme heat days over the summer.

Intuition can sometimes tell you if your plants need more water. Your Weather app too. When in doubt, though, look at the soil.

This goes for the opposite problem, too. Signs of overwatering and underwatering can look really similar. When in doubt, look at the soil! Some people only look at the leaves and get confused. Soil, soil, soil!

P.S. Our CEO, Seneca, has a story about an ex-employee at the State Street location. She told us about a new hire that was tasked with watering the trees. She walked by and saw this person spraying water on the trunk and leaves of the trees to “water” them. She had to let them know that you water at the roots, into the soil. The more you know!