Why You'll Love Yates' Range of Water Saving Products
Drought doesn't have to mean a brown lawn or withered plants. Being water smart can help you save water while keeping your garden, balcony and pots looking lush and green. Using clever watering techniques can help protect your garden from drought, and Yates' water saving products can make these techniques even more effective. Water saving products help plants absorb much-needed nutrients, as well as allow them to use water in a productive and clever way. They aren't just for times of drought either - they also work well during frosts, to protect plants, and can help water penetrate already wet soils to stop flooding.
Drought-tolerant plants such as Banskia, Lavender and Lilly Pilly, are particularly good at withstanding long hot summers, but there are still ways of keeping other plants in your garden healthy when it's hot. Reduce the amount of water you need in your garden by fitting your hose with a trigger nozzle, and manually watering so you don't over-water. Even better; use rainwater tanks or grey water to dramatically reduce water usage, water bills and help the environment. Yates Grey Water Fertiliser has been specially formulated to add missing nutrients to laundry, bath and shower greywater, so that it can be used to effectively feed home garden plants and lawns.
Remember to water the roots of plants and not the leaves to reduce evaporation, and when it's very hot water your garden either before 10 am or after 4 pm – this will also help reduce evaporation. Before very hot weather arrives, give lawns and plants a good soaking but less frequently, to help send roots deeper into the soil and build resistance to hot and dry weather.
To really improve how your plants take up water, soil wetting agents help break down waxy, water-repellent layers that often form on soil. These wetting agents can help your garden make the most of any rain or irrigation by enabling water to penetrate the soil evenly and effectively. Yates WaterWise Soil Wetter helps water penetration on lawns, gardens and pots. Available in a ready-to-use hose on formula, a concentrate and a coconut fibre mix, it helps water penetrate hard or very wet soils. With added seaweed and trace elements to promote healthy growth, they improve water penetration, allowing water to get to the plants roots, so your greenery needs less water to thrive.
Yates WaterWise Water Storage Crystals are a long-term solution to improve drought tolerance of plants. These biodegradable crystals absorb up to 400 times their own weight in water, which is stored at the plant's roots and released back to the plants over time, as and when they need it. They're ideal for longer periods of dry weather and infrequent watering, making them perfect if you're going away and leaving your garden unattended.
You wouldn't go out in the sun without sunscreen, so neither should your plants. Yates WaterWise Drought Shield acts as a sunscreen for leaves, keeping them green and healthy and protecting them from heat, drying winds, light frosts, and sunburn. It forms a clear protective layer over leaves, reducing the amount of transpiration by 50 per cent, and keeping them looking lovely all year round.
