Tag: watering

Garden IV

On By CarynIn Garden

I never did run a sprinkler or hose out to my raised bed where I am growing cucumbers, which means that when it hasn’t rained (we’ve had a rather wet summer), I’ve been hand carrying water out to the meadow. We just finished a trip where we were gone for 5 days, and rather than trust the forecast, I set up water bags to drip moisture into the soil.

Photo description: wilting cucumbers in a water trough converted into a raised garden bed with a trellis holding two bags of water

The trellis was quite helpful for installing the bags. I set the flow rate low, 5ml an hour, and made sure all the outlets dripped.

Photo description: closeup of the gauge on the drip line, showing the flow rates at the high end of the range, this junction twists in the middle to control flow

It turned out that while we were gone it rained nearly everyday, so the low 5ml flow didn’t really matter. I should have done my math first, at that flow rate the bags should last 10 days. I am hoping that it will help with this week’s heat wave.

Terra cotta wetness guage

On By CarynIn Garden

I’m trying something. I buried a terra cotta pot in my garden because I’ve noticed that the baked clay changes color when it is wet, and it is porous, so if it is wet on one side, it looks wet on the other side. I’m using this feature to tell if the ground is wet in my garden. I tend to overwater, and this might convince me to give the watering a rest.

Photo description: Terra cotta pot buried in soil, but left empty to show the darkened clay at soil level, indicating that the soil still has moisture

I’m testing it this summer, and have witnessed the terra cotta indicator as pictured above and all the plant leaves in fully hydrated form, not wilted. I did refrain from watering.