Revitalizing My Garden: Tips to Save Overwatered Plants

I have lots of plants in pots and over the summer, I have been having trouble because they are either too dry or too wet. Things with smaller leaves or a large root system stress from drought first, to the point that when I was getting a lot of wonderful rain, many plants were staying too wet, which is not good.

Why Too Much Water Is Worse Than Drought

I find too wet is worse than being too dry because if I keep an eye on my plants when they tend to be a bit dry and get to them in time when they show just a little stress, watering will revive them.

If plants stay too wet for too long, it drowns and kills the roots. Without good roots, the plant will not take up the water in the pots, so they stay wet and it kills the roots, thus perpetuating the problem.

So this means a lot of monitoring for dryness and wetness.

Steps to Rework Overwatered Pots

If the pots continue to be wet and the plants appear to be declining, the only way I’ve been able to get out of this problem is to rework it by removing a good portion of the media that’s wet (usually there are not many good roots in this area) and replace it with dry media. Many times, this wetness also causes algae growth on the surface; of course, this needs to be removed and resurfaced.

I’m very excited to say that I reworked almost all my plants. Which means I’ve trimmed them back (preserving good stuff for using), removed the media surface, and replaced it with new media.

During the reworking, if I find the roots are too bound, I remove the bottom 1/4th of the roots, put a little new media at the bottom, put the plant back in, and resurface. Then I give a good feed with Alaska Fish Emulsion.

Gardening in the Heat: My Summer Routine

With all of that re-working, talk about exercise and sweating! I can’t get out too early to beat the heat because it is hot by 8:30am, so I just make sure I drink lots of water and keep telling myself sweating is good, sweating is good. 😊

Are you a visual person and need to SEE the reworking process I described here? Check out my YouTube video where I reworked over-wet lavender plants. Watch below!

Remember most herbs prefer cooler weather. Getting them through the hot summers (especially where I live in Florida) is usually a challenge. Trim and learn to use your herbs! (Keep an eye on our Facebook page, Heavenly Flower Plants and Crafts for recipe ideas!).