Is overwatering plants a serious problem? Absolutely. However, this issue often gets too little attention because drought conditions are more top-of-mind in most regions over the past few years. But excess water in your landscaping can be just as detrimental as a lack of water.
Fortunately there are signs when overwatering is happening. We’re going to look at these signs so you can avoid the expensive results of not catching this problem in the earliest stages. A key thing to note is that this issue isn't only a waste of water and unhealthy for your valuable plants.
Your irrigation system isn’t always the culprit when it comes to damage caused by excess water. But don’t worry. We’re not just giving you ways to spot these costly issues. We are providing simple actions you can take to correct them.
4 Specific Signs of Overwatering
Are all the signs of overwatering plants easy to spot? Not necessarily, but here let’s start with the critical most signs below.
- Yellow leaves
- Drooping or wilting
- Mold or fungal growth
- Root rot
Yellowing leaves. This sign of overwatering stems from over-saturated roots. Too much water chokes plant roots because the water pushes out the oxygen necessary for healthy plants. Since the roots’ natural system is disrupted, it fails to deliver nutrients to the plant. Younger leaves will often turn yellow before mature ones.
What are some common commercial landscape plants that reveal overwatering through yellow leaves?
- Rhododendrons (prone to root rot)
- Azaleas often suffer from too much moisture
- Petunias (sometimes due to improperly installed mulch)
Drooping or wilting. These are tricky signs of overwatering plants since wilting is often linked to dried-out plants, right? But this sign makes sense because leaves are deprived of water if the root system isn’t able to deliver moisture to those leaves. Do note that drooping leaves of overwatered plants will feel “mushy,” instead of the underwatered “crispy” feel.
Why does mold or fungus show up on overwatered plants?
Excess moisture is the perfect environment for mold and fungal growth (just like a desert is the ideal place for a cactus to grow). Mold and fungus can show up due to extra surface moisture or overly wet soil. Not only that, but this growth often spreads to other plants that might be otherwise healthy!
That makes it critical to take action as soon as you or your landscaping provider spot signs of mold or fungus.
Lastly, root rot is a sign of overwatering plants and the rot is brought on by fungal pathogens that thrive in soggy soil. A few signs of root rot are blackened foliage, mushy roots, and an overall unhealthy look for the plant. It’s critical to catch this sign of overwatering immediately, or else recovery is a long shot.
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3 Signs of Overwatering in Parking Lots
Sure, a faulty sprinkler system can produce excess water visible on parking areas and sidewalks. But other issues are likely too. And these signs of oversaturation are a bit easier to notice and diagnose than the signs seen in plants. Three signs to pay attention to are below:
- Drainage issues
- Pooling water
- Drainage system not functioning properly
Let’s begin with drainage issues. Be on the lookout for standing water after the irrigation system has been running or rainfall. For any number of reasons, the water that didn’t get absorbed by your plants, shrubs, and trees is not flowing into the drainage channels correctly.
A different sign of poor drainage often rears its head with ugly, damaging erosion. This is usually visible near parking lots around the edge of planting beds. Sloped terrain plays a role, so pay close attention to those areas.
Remember—these signs can be monitored even when the area is dry.
Watch for dirty areas on sidewalks where muddy water must’ve stood, leaving a mark, before it finally drained away. The same applies for dirty spots in the middle of a parking area. If you see these signs, don’t ignore them because when water isn’t draining properly, it will oversaturate your soil and eventually seep into cracks, damaging concrete and asphalt.
Pooling water is a related issue and a potential sign of overwatering plants. Pooled water could be from a poorly set up or leaky irrigation system. Another common culprit? An outdated system without rain sensors that runs on a set schedule, even when the ground is already soaked from rainfall.
Other negative impacts that pooling water causes include:
- Making walkways slippery
- Icing over
- Causing mildew on hardscapes
- Damages to concrete or asphalt over the long-term
- Stagnant water attracting disease-spreading mosquitoes
The last sign near parking lots of too much water on your landscape is a drainage system that’s not functioning as it should. You’ll know that stormwater runoff isn’t being handled by the system if you spot overflowing water. Other times, clogged drains are your sign that a drainage system is malfunctioning. However, not all clogs are easily visible. They could be hidden by a hill or curb. Or simply be in a spot you don’t normally walk past to notice.
What about turf areas being potentially overwatered?
5 Signs of Overwatering Grass
Simply paying attention to your turf helps you spot signs of overwatering grass. Still, some signs require more than just taking a look. See the typical signs below that show your lawn is suffering from overwatering:
- Discolored grass blades
- Fungal growth (i.e., mushrooms in the lawn)
- Standing water that doesn’t drain
- Thinning patches of grass
- Spongy soil
Spongy soil in particular is one of the signs where you must be proactive to notice, by walking your property (or ensuring your lawn maintenance provider does). You can’t always look at turf and see if it’s become mushy due to overwatering. It’s a sign you may have to feel by walking the grounds.
Grass that’s getting too much water will become unhealthy as the roots fail to gather oxygen and deliver nutrients to the grass above the soil. Fungal growth introduces a whole other set of problems, including making your lawn susceptible to pest attacks. Also, mowing becomes an issue since soggy turf is easily damaged by mowers (even with skilled operators).
Waste of Resources
Overwatering grass isn’t just bad for your valuable turf. It also costs you more as your water bills increase as the irrigation system is being used more than necessary. The worst part? You don’t get any positive benefits from the extra use of irrigation. Higher water bills are just the start because if overwatering continues, you could have to replace large sections of your turf.
Another consequence of overwatering grass? It can cause runoff. The result is sometimes erosion, which isn’t good for the environment. Runoff can carry fertilizers and other chemicals into storm drains, possibly polluting waterways. So, not only does an overwatered lawn waste clean water, it can cause other water sources to become tainted.
Nearly 70,000 water bodies nationwide don’t meet water quality standards, according to the EPA.
Shade and Irrigation Mismanagement
Which sections of your lawn should you check most often for signs overwatering grass is happening? Shaded areas. Grass under consistent shade (from trees or structures) requires less water than sun-filled areas because shade reduces moisture evaporation.
Turf that gets so much shade that the soil stays wet suffers the health effects of soil oversaturation. But this can be even worse in shaded areas. Too much shade is usually detrimental to turf health (depending on the grass type) as well. It’s vital, then, to be extra vigilant in watching for signs of overwatered grass in shaded sections of your property.
A great solution to prevent this problem is smart irrigation—which adjusts the watering for each microclimate. These systems can monitor soil moisture and sun exposure and decrease water volumes in sections that don’t need as much water.
Microclimates can be caused by the following:
- Large building blocking sunlight
- Heat reflecting off glass buildings
- Exposed areas with no wind protection
- Grounds near bodies of water
- Hardscapes holding heat
- Sloped grounds facing south (receive more sun and warmth)
Now it’s time to look at proven solutions to overwatering.
How To Fix The Problem of Overwatering
While overwatering plants is a common cause of a declining commercial landscape, there are strategies to correct the issue. We’ll look at the following five strategies.
- Adjust irrigation system
- Improve drainage
- Aeration
- Soil amendments
- Training for onsite teams
Adjust Irrigation System
With today’s smart irrigation technology, it’s never been easier to avoid overwatering plants. Modern systems can sense rainfall, soil moisture, and shade in order to use the right amounts of water on each property section. Compared to older irrigation systems, smart technology is helping property owners save up to 30% on their water bills.
Those savings are impressive. However, they pale in comparison to how much is saved by providing a healthy environment for your plants and turf. Healthy plants mean you won’t have to spend money replacing them.
Yellowstone Landscape clients have seen the benefits of smart irrigation for years now, benefitting from the cost savings, attractive landscaping features, and sustainability factors.
Improving Drainage
Improving drainage makes a positive impact on your plants immediately. Installing French drains is a great solution to redirect excess water away from valuable landscape elements. And, of course, repair any French drains already on your property not functioning as they should. Installation in most cases can range from $10 to $35 per linear foot.
Dry creek beds and permeable surfaces are alternate solutions. Both enhance drainage in your landscaped areas. They can also be effective in preventing pooling in parking lots. Your landscape contractor should be capable of guiding you on the best of these drainage solutions based on your specific property, EPA guidelines, and municipal regulations.
Aeration
Most people wouldn’t think of aeration as a way to avoid overwatering plants. While aeration is best known as a way to improve your turf health, it also prevents oversaturated soil by loosening the soil. Compacted soil often causes runoff and leads pooling of water. Ground that receives regular aeration, lets water seep into the soil naturally and deeper.
This has a positive effect on your grass areas. But also leads to more vibrant flowers, shrubs, and trees due to the benefits ideal soil composition has on the entire landscape.
Soil Amendments
Want to double the positive effects of aeration? The simple act of adding organic matter (i.e., compost) to your landscape does just that. Soil quality means a great deal to the health of your landscaping. Adding organic material where needed enhances the soil, giving plants the best chance to survive. However, soil amendments also improve drainage since ideal soil naturally retains the right amount of water while allowing any extra to drain.
Training for Onsite Teams
Fixing the issue of overwatering plants isn’t a one-time correction. Your landscape maintenance team should be regularly monitoring soil moisture levels and vigilant about signs of oversaturation. They should be trained on modern irrigation systems and stay up-to-date on water conservation best practices.
Furthermore, a professional landscaping company should be doing regular irrigation system checks. A company that offers comprehensive landscaping service should have additional checklists that the mowing crews use.
These checks are invaluable for avoiding leaky irrigation systems that damage your landscape, spike your water bill, and waste valuable water resources.
According to an EPA report, poorly maintained automatic landscape irrigation systems can waste up to 25,000 gallons of water annually.
- Over-fertilizing wastes money and leads to waterway harm through runoff
- Some sections of the field may have varying soil needs
Overwatering Plants Signs Conclusion
As you can tell, there are many ways your plants and grass can be overwatered. Even though that’s a worrisome thought, the good news is there are signs that help you nip these issues in the bud. We discussed numerous signs that alert you to an overwatering problem.
All you have to do is be watchful or trust your landscaping provider is doing their job, monitoring for those critical signs. As long as overwatering issues are identified quickly, you can have them corrected quickly. By taking immediate action, in most cases, you’ll avoid the costly results of oversaturated soil.
Remember, it’s not only your turf, flowers, or trees at risk. Excess water on your property can also do major damage to your hardscape elements if left unchecked. Plus, there’s the risk of slip-and-fall accidents due to puddled water, exacerbated by slippery fallen leaves, mildew, and icy temperatures.
Ease those worries by partnering with a landscaping firm fully invested in comprehensive landscaping strategies. Comprehensive care means you’re covered at every angle. And you won’t have to worry about being blindsided by problems.
Yellowstone Landscape takes responsibility for your entire landscape. Contact us today if you want that burden off your shoulders.
