How to Water a Vegetable Garden

While it may seem like watering a vegetable garden is an easy thing, in reality there are a lot of factors that play into the process of the best way to water a vegetable garden. Variations include the type of soil your vegetables are growing in, the types of vegetables you're growing and even the season and weather pattern that is prevalent where you live. Does this Spark an idea?

Instructions

1

Check the soil to see what kind it is. The soil type that you have will determine how often you need to water your vegetable garden. For example, sandy soil doesn't retain water well, so you will want to water your vegetable garden more often. Clay soils are great at holding water, so you would need to water your vegetable garden less often.

2

Choose how you're going to water your plants. Much of this depends on whether or not it rains a lot where you live. If it does, it may not be necessary for you to do much in the way of watering your vegetable garden. You may want to set up an irrigation system, or just use your garden hose as needed.

3

Add organic matter if necessary. Adding organic matter is one way that you can help the soil, whether it is sandy or clay. For sandy soils, organic matter gives the water something to soak into, rather than just sinking right through. For clay soils, organic matter gives the soil some lightness and air.

4

Add fertilizer when needed. Generally speaking, most fertilization of the soil is done when preparing the soil for a vegetable garden, but it is sometimes done sparingly afterwards. Whether or not you need to use fertilizer largely depends on how much organic matter is already in your soil. If there is a lot of organic matter in the soil, you probably don't need to fertilize your vegetable garden, or only need to do so sparingly. Organic fertilizer, such as compost, horse manure or chicken manure is best. However, if you do decide to use a commercial fertilizer, use it sparingly and be careful around young plants because commercial fertilizers can burn the roots.

5

Water your vegetable garden as needed. One thing to keep in mind when watering your vegetable garden is that most of the roots are near the surface of the soil and need to be thoroughly soaked. One way you can ensure this is by using a soaker hose, which allows water to seep out of the entire hose all along its length. Alternative ways are via sprinklers, the garden hose, and even a special irrigation system.