Time to sing a rain song
Missions to Mars search for signs of life – in other words, water. Roots on a rocky hillside in northern Madison County are also searching for water. It’s a cosmic phenomenon.
We’ve been hot and dry in northwest Arkansas, so gardeners of all sizes are being put upon to keep their vegetables, flowers and herbs well-watered. Garden beds come in different shapes and arrangements, so gardeners use an array of watering strategies to get water where it is needed. Because we encounter such different circumstances, every gardener knows better than every other gardener about watering.
Nevertheless, there is useful information about watering that applies to all of us.
First of all, though the plants are the beneficiaries, they benefit when water soaks deeply into the soil, not splatters all over the foliage.
One source I encountered actually stated one way to tell if the soil is dry is to stick a finger in the soil. It really said that. I knew how to tell if dirt was wet when I was two years old, but maybe the writer was not two years old yet. The point, however, is water when you need to and not just because you want to.
I do not water pathways. Folks who have no choice except to water by overhead sprinklers will water their planted areas plus pathways and wherever else the wind blows. Overhead watering is going to be wasteful and a less efficient method for getting water to plants, but maybe a gardener has no other choice. Who am I to argue?
Some gardeners have beds or rows laid out straighter than pencils in a package. Maybe that arrangement fits their space or maybe it’s OCD, but it presents a perfect opportunity for drip systems. If the point is to get the right amount of water where it is needed without waste, drip systems are ideal unless they clog up or spring a leak. They deliver a slow, steady, regulated amount of water until you turn off the flow… a tribute to straight and narrow.
My garden, for example, has beds with curves and side-shoots that evolved organically through the years. An elaborate drip delivery arrangement would be wonderful, for sure, but until it shows up in a Fedex box and self-assembles, I handwater.
“Searchin’ for water in the noonday sun,” Mark Knopfler sang. Not everyone knows Mark wrote that song in my garden last Thursday and time-traveled it back to the time when we were younger and more impressionable. It’s a catchy song, and if you want to play along, it’s in the key of D.
Mark’s point to gardeners, however, which he failed to clearly explain, was it matters when we water and what soil you have and a thousand other things.
The best time to water is early morning. Less moisture evaporates which means it is more available later during a hot day (today, tomorrow and the next week). When moisture from watering remains on foliage, there is the chance fungi, molds and other agents of dysfunction will manifest. Watering during the morning allows the moisture to dissipate during the day whereas watering in the evening, which I do because I am not otherwise available, offers naturally occurring miscreants a better chance to party all night.
I admit I have seen possibly negative results of water on leaves in my bed of melons. Maybe it’s the continuous heat or maybe that melons leaves spread out over everything making it hard for the earnest gardener to water the soil and nothing but the soil beneath them. It’s possible the weather or my watering style cooked the melons, or maybe Jupiter’s in a bad mood.
But the point is water is not to be taken granted and watering is meant to be eventful and productive, and you get to do it your way.
What about rain-collecting systems!!! Maybe someday it will rain again…