Wet N Wild

One new thing I'm trying this year is an attempt to take watering out of the garden failure equation.  Last year I definitely killed many plants during the drought by failing to water them often enough.  The best time to water plants is in the morning so they get the water before the soil gets too hot so it doesn't all evaporate before getting to the roots.  At night the opposite problem occurs and it's too cold to evaporate all the water sitting on the plant or the base of the roots, which leads to root rot and mold or mildew.  Of course during a true heat wave you should water your plants every day or at least every other day, but taking the extra 15 minutes in the morning when I have to leave for work at 7:00 AM did not happen.

Watering timer.

Soaker hose packaging.

The project this year started when I got a water timer for my spigot.  I had planned to connect the timer to basic sprinklers but realized for my patio garden I'd also be watering my patio furniture cushions; not a feature I was looking for.  So I started researching other methods and decided on soaker hoses instead of sprinklers. Soaker hoses help try to prevent the problem of having water sitting on the leaves or base of the roots leading to root rot by letting water seep into the ground rather than spraying the whole plant.  You can even bury soaker hoses in the ground to get them right on the roots.  The packaging recommends covering them with mulch because the sun can degrade them but I haven't gotten around to it and for $12 to replace it I figure buying mulch is more expensive anyways and I'm feeling lazy this season on the mulch front.  If they become clogged you remove the endcap and let the water run through like a normal hose.  Also, they supposedly are great for the environment because you need to use far less water when its soaking in straight at the roots slowly.

I ran one basic garden hose to my front yard and one hose to my backyard vegetable garden bed, and attached to those hoses I have soaker hoses.  The 50' soaker hose I got  cost $12, the two spigot water timer was $40, and regular garden hoses range from about $10-$30 depending on how long of a hose you need before you get to the garden where you place the soaker hose.  So all in all, a relatively inexpensive option to take watering out of the equation and save your plants.

I've tried it out for a few weeks and so far I really like it.  You choose how long you want the timer to water for spigot 1 and spigot 2 (I chose 30 minutes each), how often (I chose every four days), and what time of day (I chose 5:30 a.m. for spigot 1 and 6:00 a.m. for spigot 2).  It has a rain delay function where you simply push + to delay the watering cycle from 12 to I believe 48 hours if it happens to rain and your plants don't need it.  It was very, VERY easy to program and I did it in about 5 minutes.  The only recommendation on the soaker hoses is that they don't lay flat after being packaged in a circle for their whole life because unlike a garden hose they're very lightweight so take them out of the packaging and stretch them flat for a few days if you can before trying to place them.

Soaker hose in raised veggie garden.

Soaker hose running past my strawberries to front garden

The hose to my front garden can run right along the side of the house so there is no problem with mowing.  In the veggie garden however, the hose has about ten feet to go between the side of the house and the actual garden where the soaker hose is placed over my lawn.  Thankfully I tend to mow my own lawn but if you have to run the hose over an area where a landscaper may accidentally shred it with a mower you can put up a small border fence to run with the hose so they have to stop and see that there's a hose.  You can easily disconnect it from the soaker hose so it's not disturbed or lift it up and mow under it quickly.  If you're not using a timer you can always simply leave the soaker hose placed in your garden and attach the garden hose to it each time you want to water.

Here's hoping we get a hot summer so I get a good "test" year in for the soaker hose/water timer experiment!