A Good Dousing in the Garden Can Refresh More Than Plants

Sometimes, saving a tired garden means reaching for the hose -- not to rehydrate plants, but to bring a glistening sheen to the patio.

The idea of wetting down walls, pavement, steppingstones and paths might seem daft. Who, after all, wants to emulate a gray, wet Monday morning? But in the hot, dry, dusty periods that characterize the summer and early fall, a good dousing can do a lot to refresh the whole landscape.

A longtime advocate of this arcane practice is landscape architect James van Sweden, who likes to moisten the patio, steps and low walls of his townhouse garden in Georgetown. If plants get dripping wet along the way, so much the better. (Dousing a wilted plant is a quick way of reviving it, though repeated leaf watering in the evening may induce fungal diseases.)

"It looks like it just rained, and that can be nice," said Van Sweden. He got the idea by reading about the Japanese tea ceremony, a four-hour meditative ritual preceded by wetting down the steppingstones to the teahouse.

Photographers find it a useful technique, though it can become a cliche, said Roger Foley, a landscape photographer in Arlington. It helps the picture taker by reducing the natural glare of the patio and evening out the contrasts.

It can also hide blemishes -- olive oil stains on flagstone, for instance -- said Alan Detrick, a landscape photographer in Glen Rock, N.J. In the age of digital image editing, however, the need to do that has diminished.

But moistening the stonework has its own value. It reduces glare, cools a space, and makes the colors of stone both darker and warmer, as well as more reflective.

It doesn't work on wood as well as on masonry, and natural stone seems better suited to the practice than modular pavers or concrete.

Detrick suggests that if you do it, pick a bright day. "If you have an overcast day and hose it down, it gives you a feeling of gloom."