This year we seem to be breaking all the climate records we broke last year, so the wise gardener should plan on regular watering.
Until recently garlic and peas thrived without irrigation but summers have become so dry that I have already set up the water system as I plant the beds, laying down soaker hoses as needed.
In my garden the soaker hose rules. It may cost more to run several hoses instead of one sprinkler, but the advantages outweigh the initial expense: water isn’t wasted through evaporation, weeds don’t proliferate where the hoses don’t water and crawling insects like slugs and wood bugs don’t penetrate the dry soil areas to eat my crops. If that isn’t enough, plant leaves don’t go mouldy because water doesn’t adhere to them from overhead watering, a real advantage because I don’t have to worry about blight that especially affects tomatoes and potatoes.
Soaker hoses use less water than sprinklers, so I can irrigate as needed when we have watering restrictions. When I use a timer I can set it for the wee hours when community water usage and temperature are both lower. I carefully drain and roll up the soaker hoses in the fall and store them under cover so they last for years; some of mine are 10 years old.
As insurance, I start each spring with fresh batteries in the timers. Since watering with a timer is automatic, we can go away for a week or two without worrying, as long as someone harvests whatever’s ripening and feeds the cat.
I use four-nozzled connectors that attach to the hoses and prefer round soaker hoses as they can be repaired and lengthened by adding another hose if I need a longer run. In my espaliered fruit trees I have Rain Bird hard plastic tubing with drip nozzles at each tree so I don’t remove them at all. These do need checking every year to ensure each tree gets water, and this hose is also hooked up to a timer.
As I said earlier the initial cost in soaker hoses is greater than a sprinkler, but in the long run it saves two vital assets, water and time. I’ll leave it to the reader to decide which is most important, but the latter is a non-renewable resource.
Please contact mary_lowther@yahoo.ca with questions and suggestions since I need all the help I can get.
