well i have given up on the garden - just too hot !! - can`t water all day so all the beds get really beat up don`t know what the trick is but next year i`ll try again - i`ve heard this from other people to - some say mulch all the beds - we`ve been here 2 yrs. i do have a compost and i`m gonna put [ egg shell compost ] in each bed next month - just hope next YEAR IS BETTER !!!
the weather has beatin me !!
- Thread starter bubba man
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You will find that heavy mulch works wonders where it is hot.
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Another trick, although probably more costly than mulch, is to have hoses laid out through your garden, and have them turn on and off using a timer.
Like these:
http://www.homedepot.com/b/Outdoors...ion-Sprinkler-Timers-Hose-Timers/N-5yc1vZc63g
I don't know how much mulch costs and if you can reuse the same mulch time and time again, but investing in a good timer and taking care of your hoses can last you years, and would probably require the bare minimum in maintenance. I guess it does depend a lot on how big your garden actually is.
Like these:
http://www.homedepot.com/b/Outdoors...ion-Sprinkler-Timers-Hose-Timers/N-5yc1vZc63g
I don't know how much mulch costs and if you can reuse the same mulch time and time again, but investing in a good timer and taking care of your hoses can last you years, and would probably require the bare minimum in maintenance. I guess it does depend a lot on how big your garden actually is.
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I have a drip system on a large garden. It is inexpensive to start and easy to set up and maintain. If I need to water a part of the garden I just shut off everything that I don't want watered and if I want to water the entire garden I can do that too. But mulch makes it even easier because I don't have to water nearly as much or as often.
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Lay on the mulch. Then water only the root area. This is my method. Either by pail if not too large or by magic wand is relatively large. Plant the rows close so the vegetation shields the space between the rows. Leave the spacing between the plants in the rows to allow for growth. There is no need for wide space between rows.
http://www.durgan.org/URL/?XRXAU 21 June 2012 Watering Methods.
I seldom water except for very young plants, and extreme dry conditions. I don’t have a sprinkler on the property, and consider them inefficient and not very effective, except for watering grass. I never water grass. To inhibit moisture loss from hot Sun evaporation all areas of the garden are mulched with wood chips.
http://durgan.org/URL/?ARLGN 28 May 2009 Watering Plant Roots.
This method gets water to the root area of the plants. The hydraulic effect of the water makes pushing the wand into the ground effortless. The device is made by cutting off the end of a typical water garden wand as sold in most hardware stores.