Plants, like people, cannot live without water. Intake of nutrients depends on it and replacement of what transpires into the air is essential if plants are to live and grow. To know how and when to water properly is one of the most useful pieces of knowledge a gardener can have.

 

The how of good watering is that it must get maximum, thorough penetration down to the roots of the plants. Moisture, either from adequate rain or hosing, should soak down 1-2 feet for the average plant; for the very small plants less, for very large ones, such as big trees, more. Skimpy watering - a hand-held sprinkle on your lawn on a balmy evening while you chat with your neighbor, for instance - is worse than no watering at all. By dampening only the top of the soil, roots are drawn into the upper, easily-dried-out surface where they will develop less vigorously and be more quickly killed or stunted. And the same goes for all plants, not just lawn grasses.

Water spreads sideways very little; most goes straight down. Tests have shown that on completely dry, average soil, it soaks down 8 inches in one hour; faster and farther in sandy ones, slower and less far in clay. Since your garden will not be bone dry to begin with, a workable yardstick is to aim, if there has been no rain for 10 days, to lay down 1 inch of water once a week on average soil, the same amount every ten days on clay, a little less twice a week on sandy soil.

Since a permanent workable moisture gauge for home gardeners has yet to be invented, the simplest way to find out how much water your sprinkler delivers is to set out three or four cans at different distances from the head and check the time it takes to collect an inch of water in them. Make a note of this and use it as a guide. If your sprinkler fills the cans unevenly, adjust it, live with it or get a better one. Whatever schedule you follow, let the soil dry out between watering - this sends plant roots deeper to seek water and thus they develop sturdier growth.

all soil dries out faster in hot windy weather; under heavy surface-rooting trees like elm and maple; on steep slopes, especially if they face south or west; in sharp-drainage, no-rain-or-dew places like those next to house walls under eaves. In these places use plants that prefer these conditions runoff is faster on slopes, so, if you are making new plantings on such a site, around the outside edge of each plant place a baffle of stone pieces, some wood or a strip of tin to hold water till it can soak into the ground for the roots to use all new plantings need watering often; on seed and seedlings use a fine spray that will not wash them out of the ground; for their first season (and frequently during their whole life) evergreens should be washed down and top-sprayed frequently to clean them

pots, planters and window boxes need to be watered frequently in place; be self-watering, or be lifted into a large tub of water for a thorough soaking as often as necessary, usually once a week at least. Freestanding clay pots can be kept moist more steadily if they are set permanently in a larger pot, with the space between packed with peat, kept moist. Hanging baskets should be lined with moss and a piece of burlap or perforated plastic, before being filled with soil, to keep water from running right through before it can be fully absorbed. Open cracks that develop at the sides of large containers where soil meets pot should be repacked by ramming a sharp stick into the hardened edge of the earth, otherwise all water put on the top will run swiftly through the open crack and out the bottom, completely bypassing the soil and roots a newly transplanted large tree, or one where a major grade change will pile  new earth over established roots, should have clay tiles inserted vertically in the ground around the outside circumference of the branches, the tops of which should be level with the final grade, and these tiles should be filled with water every few days for the first growing season, frequently thereafter until the tree is well established, and always during periods of drought. This is also an effective way to save a big tree where a major part of the root system must be sealed off with a paved driveway or walk. The tiles should be set when the paving is being laid and be deep enough to go through the solid part of the paving to the loose gravel or soil below, where the roots will be.

an ample, well-balanced watering can with interchangeable nozzles for fine or heavy spraying hoses of handy lengths: plastic is lighter and cheaper than rubber, but if your water is icy cold it stiffens and is hard to handle, whereas rubber stays more flexible. It is well worth the time, money and muscle saved to install a generous number of outlets when you are building a new house or garden, or to have them put into an old one; a good measure is to have an outlet placed so that you never have to pull more than 50 feet of hose to reach any part of the garden. Water can be dispensed from the hose in many ways. There are dozens of models in sprinkler heads - an oscillating arm is one of the best; long tubes of perforated plastic or canvas are excellent for soaking flower beds and rose plantings, so that the ground can be saturated without wetting the foliage above (wet rose leaves are prone to fungus disease); metal bubblers break the force of the water too, and it is always possible to invent a simple dispenser with an old gunnysack wrapped around the hose end or a board set at an angle to disperse the flow. The idea is to lay the water down at the best rate for maximum absorption without washing out the roots or harming the plants automatic watering systems: this can be a pro job, or, if you are handy with took, something you can do yourself. The use of plastic pipe and connections that will not break or burst in freezing weather has made it possible to lay waterlines just under the surface of the ground from a central connection in the house to all parts of the garden. Pop-up heads to spray the water lift when the system is turned on and drop back when it goes off, allowing lawn mowers to move over the top without harm. Valves allow you to water one section of the garden at a time, switches can turn the whole system off if it has rained or if you want to water one part of the garden manually, as you might just after planting a bed of annuals. Such systems now can be connected to the average home water service because they can be set to bring on the sections in sequence. Timers are available to turn each section on and off at a certain time of day or night and on a certain day of the week. Be wary, though, if you install such a system, to preset the throw of the sprinkler heads at a time when water pressure will be the same as when you set the system to come on. I know of one sad tale where a new automatic watering system was installed and the throw of the sprinkler heads was set during the day when the workmen were there. Some three weeks later the happy gardener, who had set his system to begin spraying at three in the morning and finish at six before everybody was up, suddenly realized that something dreadful was happening to his front door - the paint was peeling off and the seams opening alarmingly. The culprit was the new watering system, which at three in the morning was spraying four feet farther than it had been set during the lower pressure time of the day and was regularly soaking the front door. The valve was turned down, the door mended and repainted and everyone was happy again.

Watering is most effectively done early in the day. Special situations:

new plantings are the exception to the general rule - they should be watered at any time they are wilting or the soil around them is dried out.

in late summer and early fall, watering should be done only to prevent wilting; withholding it at this time encourages proper hardening of new growth so that it does not winter-kill easily, but one last deep watering of all plants should be given in late fall so that they go into winter with earth at their roots thoroughly moist. Harmful effects of sudden early frosts can often be overcome by hosing nipped plants very early in the morning before the sun hits them and continuing to hose until they are completely thawed out.

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