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Watering 101

If you are watering with a hose attachment or a watering can, dry soil needs to be watered and re-watered several times if it is very dry. You might think that a nice spray of water will soak down deep, but often it does not. Take a hand tool or your finger to poke the soil after watering. You might be surprised to find dry soil an inch below a wet surface. Again, that depends on the type of soil, and if you are on a hill or not. Sprinklers are good in dry times - they don't get bored with the job and leave to pull weeds or answer the phone, the way we do.

You need to buy a rain gauge, or put out tin cans to catch rain water so you will know how much fell while you were away. I recently bought a basic one for $3.29 and it serves me well. Yes, you can spend more, but I think the basic one is fine. Vegetable gardens, in general, need an inch of rain a week - either from Ma Nature, or from your hose.

Next, you need to know that soils have different abilities to hold water. Clay soil is the best for water retention because the particles of clay are microscopically small, and water molecules attach themselves to each particle. Lots of particles means lots of water.

Sandy soil is the worst: think of it as a wire basket full of golf balls. Turn on the hose, and water runs right through it. Add compost and organic matter to sandy soil and it's like adding bits of sponge to the basket of golf balls. Water will still run through it, but some will be retained.

A good loam is what we strive for: some clay to hold water, some sand for drainage, lots of organic matter to support life in the soil and to hold onto water. Adding compost to any soil, of course, improves it in many ways - including its ability to retain or drain water.

Gravity and the presence of ledge affect the water-retaining abilities of your soil, too. A hilly site will lose its water much faster than a flat site, as gravity pulls it downhill. On the flat, ledge near the soil surface can act like the bottom of a bathtub, holding water. On a hillside, a layer of ledge near the soil surface can help to drain water downhill on its rocky surface - just as a paved parking lot might.

Before the recent rain many gardeners had soil that was like a 50 pound sack of flour. A quick sprinkle with a hose might make the soil surface look better, but dry soil has a very hard time accepting moisture, particularly if it comes all in a blast from a hose. Dry soil tends to shed water, not absorb it. You can build little walls of soil around your broccoli or tomatoes to catch water and encourage it to slowly seep in. Otherwise it tends to run off and away from your thirsty plants.

If you mulch your flower beds, you need to know that a light rain or a sprinkle with a hose may not even penetrate the mulch. Bark mulch is probably the worst culprit: it takes a lot of water to soak and penetrate 2-3 inches of bark mulch. And yes, it will stay moist for a long time, but that doesn't do much for your peony that has a root going down a foot or more in the soil. For that reason, you may want to leave a mulch-free zone right around each flower.

I love a good watering wand. Dramm is one brand that I regularly use, as the holes in the rosette are such that I can deliver a lot of water without producing a sharp spray that might injure small plants or erode the soil. It has a 30 inch handle so I can direct water under leaves without bending over.





Sprinklers for the garden are good - but the simpler the better. My favorite is a brass frog that spews water out if its back. Rotating and flip-flopping sprinklers are good, too, if you don't mind being a target as they change their spray pattern. Timers are available to control sprinklers, again, the simpler the better. Some can be programmed to water on any imaginable schedule, but if your microwave is still blinking at you since the power went out last winter, they are not for you.

My soil, having been treated to compost every year for decades, weathers drought very well. Even so, I hope that we get good gentle rains every week all summer. If not? My frog and I are ready.

Henry Homeyer is the author fo 3 gardening books. His web site is www.Gardening-Guy.com. You may reach him at P.O. Box 364, Cornish Flat, NH or at gardening.guy@valley.net.