How to water your own garden

Описание: How to water your own garden (Time, Method, Measurement, Care)
‪@PlantFarmEat‬

Watering:
• It is nearly impossible to have a successful garden without watering. There may be weeks or even months when the perfect amount of rain falls. But nearly every summer brings a stretch of hot, dry days when garden irrigation is essential.
• Hand dripping water onto seedling in mound of soil
• A lack of water can have major impacts on plants, even if it is just for a few days.
• Plants draw nutrients in through their roots and move the nutrients through the plant in a water solution. A lack of water also means a lack of nutrients.
• Photosynthesis transforms water into sugar and oxygen when light hits plant leaves.

When to water:
• Check the soil conditions to determine if it is time to water.
• Remove the mulch from the soil surface, and then use a spade or a trowel to dig into the soil. The top inch of soil may be dry, but the soil below should be somewhat moist. If the soil is dry two inches below the surface, it is time to water.
• Do not wait for rain to water your garden. If your plants need water today, a rain shower forecast for the day after tomorrow does not help.
• If plants are wilting or showing other signs of heat stress, water as soon as possible. This may be in the heat of the afternoon or evening.
• Although watering early in the day is a better practice, do not wait to water when plants are wilting and under drought stress.

How much to water:
• By using a simple rain gauge or following weather reports, you can determine if your garden received one inch of rain over the past week.
• One inch of rain is a lot of water. For a 100 square-foot area, one inch of rain is 62 gallons. Figure out the actual size of your garden by measuring length and width in feet. Multiply those numbers to get total square footage. If a garden is 20 feet by 30 feet (600 square feet), after a week without rain, it would need 372 gallons of water.
• Water gardens on sandy soils twice a week, supplying one-half inch of water (31 gallons per 100 square feet) each time.

Water measurement:
• A water meter on your hose lets you know just how much water you are using on your garden.
• Or you could use a clock and a bucket to figure it out.
• Start with a bucket of known volume, like a five-gallon pail. Measure water into the pail and mark the level that is the actual five-gallon line.
• Turn on your hose and set it as you would to water your plants. If you use a pistol grip or a sprinkler, put the attachment on the hose. Use the volume of water you normally do.
• Begin timing and find out how long it takes to fill the bucket to the 5-gallon mark. It may be a matter of a few seconds. Do the test again to confirm your first result. Whatever you come up with, it would take you 12 times as long to apply 62 gallons of water to a 100 square-foot garden area.

Watering method:
• Use drip, trickle or soaker systems.
• Slow flow from a hose near the base of the plants
• If you are using a hand-held hose, you may underestimate how much water you have applied, so measuring the rate is important.
• Reduce the water outflow and place the hose at the base of plants to allow water to soak into the soil.
• Lower volume will take longer to water and should not be strong enough to wash away the soil from plant roots.

Watering care:
• Plant roots need the water, not the leaves. Wet leaves, especially in the evening, can cause leaf diseases. Low and slow watering will allow the water to soak into the soil and be available to plant roots.
• However you irrigate, be sure that you are applying the water slowly enough that it does not puddle and run off the soil.
• Sandy soil will accept water faster than heavier soils.

Drip irrigation:
• If interested in waterwise gardening, you should consider drip irrigation.
• Odd-shaped and narrow areas are easily irrigated with drip systems.
• Drip irrigation stretches water supplies and may be exempt from water restrictions imposed during drought.
• Drip irrigation equipment is readily available and can easily be installed by yourself.
• Common setup mistakes include not installing a filter or pressure reducer, use of overly long lengths of mainline, and adding too many drip emitters.
• Drip systems can be easily changed over time as plants grow and needs change.
• Use goof plugs to plug holes in mainline that are no longer needed.

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