Tips for Watering your Garden
Summer makes everything hot. So, how do you keep your garden from burning up in warm weather? Watch and learn as lawn and garden expert, Amy Grisak shares her best tips and techniques for watering your garden, keeping it healthy and thriving all summer long.
Want to learn more tips and tricks about gardening? Click here to read more.
Video Transcription
What is the Best Time to Water my Garden?
I'm Amy Grisak with North 40 Outfitters, and today we're going to talk about what you need to water your garden properly. Now watering along with feeding your garden is one of the most important things you could do, particularly for us gardeners out West who oftentimes don't have the rainfall that we would really like to see. When to water is probably the number one question that most gardeners have and the best time, the best answer is always watering in the morning. If you're a nice early bird and you're up with the robins, get that water on and get the garden nice and soaked. And so during the morning when it's still cool, it won't evaporate as quickly. Now, if you can't water in the morning, it is okay to water in the late afternoon, early evening. It's sometimes not the best because a lot of times it's hotter and a lot of times you don't want water to sit on the leaves in the evening because it can promote mildew and other disease growth, but if that's the only time you need to water, absolutely do it.
How Much Water does my Garden Need?
Now, how much you need to water is also another question. You're typically looking at roughly an inch or so of water a week, although this is variable depending on your location. If you're in an area that is hot and dry and has that wind, that basically turns your area into convection oven. You're going to want to give those plants additional waterings, even if you've already given them a good dose through the week. How you water is another good question. Of course, overhead watering like with this little guy have been popular forever. Hook up the hose, set it in place and let it go. Definitely works and will knock the dust off the leaves, but it's also probably the least efficient means of watering. With the water going up in the air, a certain amount evaporates, a certain amount a lot of times blows away. If you can avoid using one of these, that's a good thing. The next option, and probably the best option is an orbit type irrigation, a little drip system. These are great to install. You can put them up, put them through your garden and actually have drip emitters to each of the plants or each of the rows, so you know exactly how much water everything is getting and if you want to make it really, really easy, you hook up the whole system to a timer, so you can go on vacation and you don't have to worry about whether everything is being taken care of. Plan your watering system for your garden, know how much water you're giving your plants, give them more if the conditions warrant, and then sit back and reap the benefits by the end of the season. If you have any more questionings about gardening, be sure to stop by any of the North 40 Outfitters locations or visit North40.com.