Applying water;
Ideally one should apply water at a steady rate, in effect at a rate that emulates steady rainfall.
Too much water at once can cause soil erosion and compaction, plus it can wash away nutrients.
There are many types of equipment available to the amateur gardener for applying water to the soil, each with there own benefits and / or drawbacks, here are a few;
Watering cans;
These can come in varying sizes (capacities) although two are quite popular, i.e. 1 litre (1¾ pints) and 5litre (2 gall).
The former is generally used with pot plants where only small quantities have to be treated, the latter are useful where there is a need to just water a few or individual plants as opposed to the whole bed. |
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Hosepipes:
Before using these one must ensure that there is no ‘hosepipe ban’ in your locality.
While this method of watering is more convenient, it is often more wasteful, and sometimes damaging!
You will often find that; some plants get more water than others, and non planted areas are watered thus encouraging weed growth!
Plus the wetted area makes a good skid pan for slugs and snails to navigate to your plants.
There are a number of ‘hose end’ attachments that can be fitted to hoses that allows the user to vary the intensity of the spray.
However! if the pressure is too great, you can damage plants, spoil flowers, damage the soil surface, and wash out nutrients.
Similarly the water may run off the designated area before it has a chance to percolate down to the root system.
When watering with a watering can, each plant is more likely to get an amount of water relative to its needs, and the surrounding area is left dry, wich acts as a deterrent to slugs & snails.
Sprinklers:
These tend to be used on lawns where they are allowed to spray water in a side to side or circular motion.
They have limited use on flower or vegetable beds due to the expanse of the spray, that is, the water goes on to areas that might not necessarily require watering to the detriment of the areas that do, meaning they use huge amounts of water.
Leaking / seeping hoses;
These are hose that have been purposely perforated to allow water to seep out.
In some cases these hoses can be used on the soil surface and placed adjacent to rows of plants where the water seeps out and percolates down to the root systems.
On other occasions, such as with permanent fruit trees and plants with deep root systems, the hoses are sunk permanently along the length of the rows of trees.
In both cases it is possible to fit the hose/s to reservoirs that allow soluble liquid feed to be added to the irrigation system.
Similarly these hoses can be fitted with automated watering systems where an electronic timer is screwed to the tap to turn the system on/off automatically.