Water Saving Tips For The Vegetable Garden

Last modified: November 17, 2024.

Instead of cookies the garden is baking in summer sunshine. Here where I live, we’re having one of the hottest and driest summers in memory. Fields that are usually lush and green are yellow and withered and let’s not even talk about the lawn.

Our plants are thirsty. If we want the garden to survive we’re going to need to do some serious watering.

However, with the heat comes public notices on reducing water usage and avoiding watering the lawn. That brings into question how we vegetable gardeners can keep our gardens watered while trying our best to minimize turning on the tap. Here are top proven water-saving tips for the vegetable garden.

🟢 Water in the Evening

The time of day that you water makes a huge difference in how much moisture gets to your plants. Watering in the heat of the day can mean quite a lot of it will evaporate from the soil long before it reaches any roots. The best time to water the garden is early evening. Not only will it be cooler to work outdoors but less evaporation will happen. Give the moisture a full night to seep further down and you’ll end up saving a lot of water in the long run. If you can’t get to the garden in the evening, water it early in the morning. The earlier the better to help the soil soak up moisture before the sun starts beating down..

🟢 Mulch the Soil

If you leave the soil around your plants bare, it will dry up and your plants’ roots along with it. Keeping your soil moist and healthy during summer means that you need to protect its uppermost layer. Cover it with a mulch of your choice: garden compost, composted manure, straw, grass clippings, or another protective organic material. A two-inch layer of mulch (or more) will keep your soil from drying out. It also means that you have to water your garden less.

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🟢 Water Plant Roots, Not Leaves

When using a watering can or hose, direct the water at the bases of the plants only. A gentle shower of water on the compost will make it straight down to where it’s needed without being wasted on the foliage.

🟢 Use Seep Hoses

Seep hoses work by allowing tiny amounts of water to seep through holes in the hose. It takes longer for the water to get to your plants but you can end up saving a lot more water by using them. Seep hoses can be buried under the compost and near where the plant’s stem is and can even be attached to water butts instead of the tap.

🟢 Water Containers When They’re Dry

People tend to run into trouble with watering containers through under-watering. Some also over-water and the plants inside can suffer too. Poke a finger in the soil to feel if it’s moist or not. If it’s dry, water it. If moist, leave it be for the day. Simples.

🟢 Collect Rainwater

If you really want to save water, save it from your coop roof. In the case of a house, attach a water butt or two to the gutter and downspout system. .

🟢 Recycle water

Ordinary washing-up liquid (dish soap), shampoo, and soap are harmless to plants when diluted in water. That means that you could save your dishwater and bath water for use in the garden. Using a plastic tub to do your dishwashing makes taking it out to the garden very easy. In the case of greywater from the sink, tub, or washing machine you may have to either bail it out or install custom plumbing.

🟢 Bonus tip: Watering with Sprinklers

Providing you have a good layer of mulch and you water in the evening, a sprinkler can be an invaluable water-saving asset. Figuring out how long you should run it can be tricky though.

An easy way to work this out is to place empty glasses around the area your sprinkler will hit. Turn the sprinkler on and leave it on for at least 20 minutes. Measure how much water is in the glass afterward, using a ruler. A vegetable garden (Lettuce) needs about 1.5″ of water every week so if there’s 1″ after 20 minutes then add enough time to make up the extra half inch. In this case that makes 30 minutes of unbroken sprinkler watering.

Thank you for tuning in. I bless you.

Until next time.