Week 14: Tips for Watering your Garden

Hey Everyone!

So this week, I’m giving watering tips. Yip! You heard right…..watering…. don’t wait for rain!!!

It might seem that watering is something you don’t really think about… however, there is a lot to know about watering gardens so they maximize the health and yield of your veggies.  I have a little video here, but don’t show everything I talk about here as can’t show things under the ground, and truthfully, forgot about a couple of the points before I wrote this.

#1. Never water your garden between 10-2, especially on a very hot day. It is just too hard on the plants.

#2. Keep buckets and rain-barrels around and have water in them all the time. Plants do much better if the water is warmer than cold tap water.

#3. If you live in town and using water with fluoride and other stuff they put in the water, try to use rain barrels for water. All those chemicals are not the best for the plants. That being said, SOME of those things evaporate off if you have them in buckets and barrels sitting around warming up.

#4. Dig a moat around each plant. ( Yes, I have them around EACH plant….. and I have hundreds of plants!!). This will help keep the water for the plant, and the water will sink down into the roots and not spread out at the surface making the roots sprawl out near the top instead of growing down words.

#5. Give plants at least a 500ml margarine container of water.

#6. Consider soaker houses for the root vegetables. This will direct root growth down and keep all the water where you need it.

#7. Don’t use a sprinkler on tomatoes as it can encourage blight. Hand water them. (I actually hand water every plant by hand, AND use a sprinkler on some). 

#8. Sprinklers are fine for most veggies, just avoid tomatoes, and make sure the it is wet enough to soak a couple inches down. This is WAY more water than you think. It takes a couple hours to get it there. To test, simply take your finger and run a deep line in the soil. If it is still dry underneath, keep watering. (I show that in the video).

#9. Squash need a gallon of water a day as they grow big. And they prefer warmer water.

#10. If you are growing brussels, you get a much better yield if you give them 500ml or more water a day.

So, there you go! The very basics of watering! Simple? Maybe to some… but beginner gardeners, I didn’t know half this when I really got started. In all honesty, my garden’s now go through about 70-100 gallons of water a day. Mind you, I am caring for 2 very large gardens, and 7 small side gardens, as well as a few pots of gardens.

Hope this was helpful!

Alrighty! Happy Gardening you all!!!

Shy-Anne

P.s. If you have questions,  please feel free to drop me a line at shyanne.leah@gmail.com