Water-Wise Vegetable Gardens Are Very Easy and Totally Delicious!

We have it on the best authority (our friend Monica at The Regional Water Authority) that folks may not be aware that we are sitting here at Blue Thumb Blog Central waiting patiently to be asked questions such as, “How do I conserve water in my vegetable garden?” This question came to the RWA from a nice woman who said it was “very difficult to find information on vegetable garden water conservation.” Well, read on and send us your questions—via the blog site—and magically the answer to your specific, individual, ‘no one has this problem but me’ question will appear.

Water conservation in the veggie garden is easy because your plants are all the same area; and while it is true that we like to keep plants with similar water requirements together, we have some wiggle room when it comes to edible landscapes. They can, and sometimes do, require a touch more water at certain times of the nearly three hundred day growing season in the Sacramento area. There’s an old saying: “Water the heck out of the tomatoes (but do not drown or you’ll kill them) til they set fruit and then cut way back—sometimes only once a week to ten days is needed if you’ve mulched around the base of the plants”. In addition to saving water your tomatoes will have much deeper and richer taste—less watery and more firm.

The smartest way I know to irrigate a “residential” size garden is to lay out a grid of inline emitter drip tubing on top of your ready to plant (but not yet planted) beds. There are also inline emitter tapes available that lays flat and is easy to work with. There are kits of every size and price range for this and they are very easy to install—you do not have to be a rocket scientist. You just need to go to a knowledgeable nursery person.  You lay out the lines, usually equidistant from each other and plant in between the rows of irrigation drip line.

When you test the system, you’ll notice that circles appear on the soil surface, where the water leaves the emitters (the holes in the tubing), usually every twelve to eighteen inches. As the water continues to run, the circles meet and you have a very even watering pattern that reaches the root zone, simply and efficiently. You will need to do some checking to make sure the water doesn’t go far deeper than it needs to moisten the water and nutrient-absorbing roots. Most veggie gardens use about one to one and a half inches of water a week (about the same as turf grass).

Because you usually have a variety of herbs and veggies planted together, some may require a little extra TLC. It is really not a completely exact science— irrigation is something you need to practice. If you don’t think the garden needs water, stick your finger in the soil and check! Wet down a few inches: No water; Dry as dust: Water and then check again. You can meditate while you learn this, by being still and watching the leaves—if they look happy, the plant is (usually) happy as well.  You will learn which of your plants need more water and which are happy with whatever you give them. And by the time those heavenly basil leaves land in your first summer Caprese salad, you should have this pretty well in hand.

Conserve even more in your edible garden by adding mulch. As your veggies grow larger, like those sneaky torpedo-sized zucchinis, the leaves will also cool and shade the soil—moisture retention naturally. So as not to seem like a technical manual, I will end this entry.  I could write for weeks, but, TMI (Too Much Information) is often not our friend when we are learning something new. Better to take small bites—like when you explore that jalapeño that you’re curious about.   From the Blue Thumb garden, we wish you happy vegetables!