Watering your Garden

Watering your garden is the other thing that your plants really need to thrive. It’s so essential that the soil does not become too dry or your plants will not survive. You probably knew that already.

But how much water is enough and how much water is too much? Plants that are over watered can develop rot. Over watering can be just as harmful to plants as under watering.

Wilting may be a signal that the plant is suffering a serious water shortage. Therefore, try to anticipate the plant’s water needs before its growth even slows down, much less stop.

The symptoms of over-watering are very much like those of underwatering-pale foliage and wilting. So how do you distinguish them? Simply check the soil around the plant. If it is moist or wet, your plant is receiving too much water, and if it is dry, they aren’t receiving enough. The trick to successful watering is to keep the water supply as consistent as possible.

A good rule of thumb to know when watering your garden needs is to check the soil. If the soil is mostly dry but a bit damp you should plan on watering that day. If the soil is moist you probably don’t need to water. If the soil is wet then you definitely shouldn’t water. When you water, keep the hose aimed at the ground to make sure that the soil and the area around the plant’s roots gets wet. Misting the water over the top of the plant doesn’t do much to give the plant the water it needs.

When watering your garden it’s really important that the water that you are using gets to the plant’s roots. If you can, dig down into the soil around the plants a bit so that the water can go down directly to the roots or build an irrigation system in your garden that will help deliver the water directly to the plants roots.

sprinklers

Using Sprinklers

Using a sprinkler or a sprinkler system can be a very effective way when watering your garden without having to take the time to do it yourself. If you have a small garden then you probably only need one sprinkler, but if you have a large garden you might want to invest in a whole sprinkler system with a timer and adjustable spray patterns.

Using a sprinkler system, you can adjust the flow of the water to be light or heavy when necessary and you can also set the timer to water the garden automatically in the early morning or in the evening. If you tend to work late or are not going to be home often enough to water your garden when it really needs it then you should definitely think about adding a sprinkler system to your garden.

Sprinklers and sprinkler systems are available in all price ranges so there is sure to be one that you can easily afford and that will have the features you need. Stop by the local home improvement center or gardening center and talk with an associate about the watering systems they have and how often you should be watering your garden based on the climate and the heat where you live.

Using Drip Irrigation

Drip irrigation offers a number of important benefits to the yard and garden. First, a drip system uses much less water than the traditional sprinkler. You can assume that you will save at least 30-50 percent of the water you would use with this method of watering. Water from a drip has no chance to evaporate or run off, because it is completely absorbed by the soil.

Drip irrigation saves time. You can water your garden in 10 seconds, the time it takes to turn on the system. And with a timer, watering takes no time at all, since it is completely automated. In addition, drip system has a cooling effect on the soil and will keep the temperatures down during the hottest months of summer, providing more favorable conditions for plant growth.

Finally, a drip irrigation system reduces the problem of soil compaction. Soil that becomes very saturated with water loses its structure and becomes compacted. Since drip irrigation systems release water slowly, compaction does not become a problem.

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Conserving Water When You’re Gardening

medianet_width='300'; medianet_height= '250'; medianet_crid='138964988'; Conserving water is everybody’s business. Global warming is everyone’s problem and everyone is affected. This is a serious matter that has affected a lot of lives in the world especially those living in drought-prone areas like Africa. If you are living in a drought-prone zone even if it is not in Africa, then conserving should be high on your list. However, this could pose a little issue with your pl