The weather has been very weird here this year. It rained almost every day in May and most of June. Then it stopped utterly. I was so used to the soil being well watered that I didn't think about it when it didn't rain for 3 weeks.
The Cucumbers wilted, so I watered them. Then I tried to push a finger into the soil next to the tomatoes and couldn't! So I spent the past 2 days watering everything. I don't water the lawn, often. If it goes dormant, that's fine; it always comes back.
But I gave the vegetable garden and the flowerbeds a good soaking. The veggies are in separate framed beds, so I don't want to water the spaces between. The flowerbeds are about 8' wide, and I don't have any sprinkler system the waters so narrowly. I have some drip hoses, but they are unimagimably slow and don't work evenly.
So, I did it by hand. By spading fork actually...
A few years ago, I discovered that the fan hose-end nozzle fit in the handle of my D-shaped spading fork. It occurred to me I could just set it in there and drive the spade fork into the ground to shower an area many minutes at a time.
It works great. I keep a kithchen timer in my pocket, set it for 4 minutes, and weed a dry area of the garden while the water showers down on the other parts. The fan sprayer nozzle is perfect for 6-8' deep beds and almost all the water goes to the plants. The timer gives me consistent watering.
To all you gardeners out there, don't worry, I watered the tomatoes and such by hand only at ground level. I know about the diseases that wet plants can get.
I also watered the flowers at mid-day when they were sure to dry off the leaves before evening...
It took most of 2 days to do it.
But everything seems recuperated now, and it is supposed to rain a couple times next week. Yay! The lawn needs it and the garden/flowers will appreciate it!
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3 comments:
We didn't get rain in June, most of my day was taken up with watering things so I sympathize. We used drip hoses for a lot of it and the current project is a way to disperse Miracle Grow with the dripper hoses. So far it isn't working out to well. Thankfully we are getting rain in July. ~Alasandra
I use dripper hoses and a 10$ time from Lowes. I set them at night and forget them.
I know you are not supposed to water at night, but I have never gotten fungus, as I only water when it is dry.
For my trees, I take the timer and set it, then put a hose connection that is loose at the base of the tre, adn a hose end sprayer that is loose on the very end and let them leak on the tree base.
Works a charm and when needed i set the timer and forget about it.
da bear
If you want to fertilize using a dripper hose, mix the fertilizer to a concentration 16 times normal. Then set a hose end sprayer which will attach to the dripper for 8 ounces per gallon.
They DO make hose end sprayers that go on the end of hoses AND allow another to attach to the output.
Otherwise, a greenhouse supply store has venturi style siphoners that siphon a 16 to one liquid feed.
Always use TWO hoses, as the flow needs to be fast enough to make it accurate. You can get the "fast drip" hoses and they work better than the slow soakers.
I sue both and I an very satisfid with the results. Da wife's orchids would be a pain to fertilize, and other sprayings, otherwise.
da bear
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