Watering by Hand
If you read about vegetable gardening one of the rules of thumb you might often encounter is “a vegetable garden needs a minimum of 1 inch of water per week.” While that is very good advice about watering in general, it doesn’t touch on some important issues you should keep in mind:
- Water Early — If you are using some sort of sprinkler system a great time to water the garden is early in the day. Typically it is cooler in the morning so evaporation will be less of an issue. If you can’t water early in the day don’t sweat it — the important thing is to water your garden when you can.
- Water Often… — Most vegetables love water. One of the best things you can do for your garden is to set up a loose watering schedule. It might take some trial-and-error, but if you make adjustments you will eventually hit upon a schedule that works for your climate.
- As an example, Meadowwood Garden (Zone 5) gets watered every other day in the summer for between 1 and 2 hours each time. If it is especially hot or dry weather the schedule is increased to once a day. If it is supposed to rain on a watering day the watering is skipped. After a decent rain the garden doesn’t get watered for 2 days.
- …But Not Too Often! — It is possible for your garden to get too much water! The good news here is if you are using raised beds with loose, rich soil it becomes almost impossible to overwater because the soil will drain very well. Raised beds are popular for that very reason among others. Personally I don’t worry too much about overwatering — there was a period in June this year when we received over 6 inches of rain in 4 days and the garden absolutely drank it up!
- Water Deep — The healthiest vegetable plants have deep root systems. The best way to promote deep roots is to deeply soak the ground when you water. As mentioned before, Meadowwood Garden gets over an hour of watering each time! It might seem like a lot, but just like a good rain it will soak deeply into the soil and be available to the plant even when the top of the soil is dry.
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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
This is a really good guide to use water efficiently! Water is becoming a scarce resource.
@ TopVeg — Water is indeed becoming scarce. Thank you for stopping by, and welcome to Meadowwood Garden!
i live in connecticut and started my first veggie garden, i’ve been watering them jut around dusk and everyday at that.. is that too much?
It might be too much depending on how deeply you water them each day. The more deeply you water, the less often you need to water as a rule of thumb. Just keep an eye on the plants and they will tell you everything you need to know! If you begin to see wilted plants, brown spots on new leaves, low leaves turning yellow and falling off and/or stunted growth you are probably overwatering.
Watering is more of an art than a science because there are so many variables. No worries though — soon you will get a feel for what YOUR garden needs.
If you have any further questions just stop back by and drop us a line!