Review Version - Guiding Plant Parents - Proper Watering

Guiding Plant Parents on Proper Plant Watering

GUIDE TO PROPER WATERING IN THE GARDEN CENTER

At SummerWinds Nursery, plant care is as important as sourcing high-quality plants from vendor partners. We live our We Guarantee Success, and provide perfect plant care from the point the plant becomes part of our inventory, until it leaves with a happy plant parent. It starts at our garden centers, but it ends at the Customer's home. In your role as an Associate, you are often asked for advice about proper plant care and watering. Your expertise and ease in sharing helpful information is critical to the success of the plants, and we encourage you to advise our Customers as a Trusted Garden Advisor.

In this course, we will help you to learn how to share your knowledge and guide our Customers on proper plant watering to resources and information that will help them to be successful.

Let's get started!

INTRODUCTION

Introduction & Objectives

The Basics

Guiding Customers to Watering Their New Plantings Guiding Customers to Determine Proper Soil Saturation

CONCLUSION

Seeds to Success

Going Forward

Lesson 1 of 6 Introduction & Objectives

Watering as a Professional Providing perfect plant care from the point the plant becomes part of our inventory, until it leaves with a happy plant parent, is your goal as a SummerWinds Nursery Associate.

Watering as a professional requires a bit of knowledge , even more observation of the plants, and a great bit of practice . Now that you have learned how to properly water plants in our garden centers, you will learn how to find more resources and how to share with the Customers.

As you become more skilled, we know you will find sharing your knowledge a very rewarding part of your day . Program Objectives

In this program, you will:

Learn about resources available to our Customers for proper watering.

Review these resources to learn more about proper watering to benefit you and our plant parents. Understand your important role as a SummerWinds Associate to ensure our positive Customer experience and guarantee of success. Realize how to Engage with Customers and understand how to advise the Customer on proper watering and share all the resources available for watering a new plant.

Lesson 2 of 6 The Basics

Improving your skills & expertise ensures the advice you provide helps guarantee the success of our products in the Customers' home. A basic understanding of proper watering is helpful for the Customers . As an Associate , you will need to be an expert . Learning how to properly care for our plants in the garden center is step one. In our program titled "Guide to Proper Watering in the Garden Center" , a great deal of information is provided to understand basic watering techniques. If you would like to review the program to be sure you have the basics needed to advance to providing advice for our Customers click the program below to view:

https://rise.articulate.com/share/6rPTSX_SlAkJIcfTRwi4jes2smZNYnax

Applying the knowledge, you have learned about caring for the plants in the Garden Center, combined with environments typically encountered by our Customers , is

You will want to share with Customers your skills in determining the process and amount of water a plant needs. Factors that contribute to amount and frequency of watering:

1

SIZE - The size of the plant and the size of its container if applicable, are both contributing factors to the amount of water and frequency needed for optimum success.

PRESSURE - The pressure of the water being applied must be regulated to soak the plant, not push soil out of the plant.

2

3

WATER PLACEMENT - In the garden centers, typically our plants are all watered by hand using a hose with showerhead attachment. However, Customers may water by hand, soaker hoses, irrigation systems etc. Where the plant is obtaining its water from, the placement, will determine the length of watering needed.

4

AMOUNT - It varies by plant, by weather, by soil, by location, plant weight, and many other factors, helping our Customers look for the visual clues found in the plants, will go far in ensuring the plant success.

Lesson 3 of 6 Guiding Customers to Watering Their New Plantings

Providing Trusted Garden Advice on Watering As you learn and perfect the process for watering plants properly, you should recognize our Customers often ask for tips on watering plants.

Here are some helpful "best practices" to share with Customers about

The goal of watering new plantings should be to achieve saturation in the soil . It is better to water plantings “ low and slow ” than “fast and out”. It means we want the water to get deep—1'-1 1/2' feet deep (this can vary by the size and variety of the plant that was planted)—and out to at least the edge of the plants' foliage or canopy.

Typically, saturation is best achieved by watering for a longer period of time but less frequently.

Watering deep to reach the roots is vital!

Tree Canopy

As watering is required to get deep to reach the roots and extend out to the edges or canopy, it is evident it depends upon the size of the plant. Watering further outward is required for larger plants.

In-Ground Watering

View the video below demonstrating in-ground watering using the best practices you have just learned. The video shows both wide and close up view of the watering process to demonstrate the flow and saturation.

https://youtu.be/_YC9UuP0rV0

Example of Watering using a showerhead and multiple plants:

https://youtu.be/buPle4UHCAU

SummerWinds Nursery Website A great resource on our website, many resources are available to our plant parents. http://www.summerwindsnursery.com SummerWinds How to Water Video: View this video and share with Customers as a great resource to reinforce your guidance.

https://youtu.be/tgPLllAGAAQ

SummerWinds New Plant Watering Guide

Found on our website is the "New Plant Watering Guide", also available in-

Arizona Watering Guide

Customer Guide to New Plant Watering.pdf

California Watering Guide

SWCA_ California Water Guide Infographic Hybrid_PDF.pdf 237.1 KB

Click buttons below to view additional information on the SummerWinds webpage. Feel free to explore the many resources and information you can guide Customers to review:

https://wateruseitwisely.com/?r3d=landscape-watering-guide-flipbook/

AZ WATERING

https://www.summerwindsnursery.com/ca/inspire/blog/regulating-moisture-in-garden-beds/

CA WATERING

Lesson 4 of 6 Guiding Customers to Determine Proper Soil Saturation

Below are some basics that are helpful to understanding soil saturation you may share with Customers. Providing Trusted Garden Advice on Soil Saturation Experience watering and learning about the soils , enhance your abilities to observe and recognize how to advise a Customer on soil saturation .

The best way to know if the soil is adequately saturated, is to physically observe the soil profile from a foot (1') to foot and a half (1-1/2') down in the soil.

You can check soil with a soil probe , screwdriver, or wooden chopstick, and push it into the ground of the planting hole outside of the root ball.

Soil that is adequately saturated will stick to the wooden chopstick or screwdriver. If the soil crumbles off with no residue, it is likely not saturated enough.

You can check the soil with your hand by squeezing or doing the " squeeze test ".

You can direct Customers to our SummerWinds website and YouTube for helpful information like the "squeeze test" video, seen below. You can also learn more about how to test soil moisture in the course "Guide to Proper Plant Watering in the Garden Center".

Quick & Easy Soil Moisture Test: How to tell if your soil moisture level is correct in your garden. – Thrive and Grow Gardens agriculturist Tommie Birch.

YOUT

Quick & Easy Soil Moisture Test: How to tell if your soil moisture level is correct in your garden.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYWantiL3OI

Lesson 5 of 6 Seeds to Success

Share with Customers that observation and practice are essential to enhancing your watering skills and efficiency!

Lesson 6 of 6 Going Forward

Be sure to recognize how important proper watering is to maintain our high standard of quality for our Customer experience and especially to ensure Our Plant Guarantee. Share watering tips and guide Customers to the resources available to them at every opportunity.

Click below to review these optional resources on watering discussed in this program to learn more that you may want to share with our

Customers: Watering Guide

This is the link to the New Plant Watering Guide found on the SummerWinds web page for Customers. https://www.summerwindsnursery.com/az/inspire/how-to/watering-guide/

NPWG

California Watering Guide Video SummerWinds CA video. https://youtu.be/tgPLllAGAAQ

SWGC YOUTUBE

California SummerWinds Water Guide

SWCA_ California Water Guide Infographic Hybrid_PDF.pdf 237.1 KB

Arizona Landscape Watering by the Numbers - eBook

Landscape by the Numbers AZ.pdf

Conclusion - Thank you for taking the time to complete this program.