Smart and Easy Garden Watering with Less Water

Smart and Easy Garden Watering with Less Water

1.     Add Compost and Other Organic Matter to Garden Soil:  Organic matter, such as compost helps soils to absorb water like a sponge, instead of allowing it to all drain away.

2.     Mulch: Mulch is your garden soil’s great friend.  A layer of mulch helps to keep soil from drying out, keeps weeds from sprouting, and breaks down to become organic mater in your garden soil, further increasing your soil’s water retention.  On your annual beds, spread straw or leaves in a 3-4 inch layer over your garden soil, being careful not to cover or crowd your plants. In your perennial beds, use wood chips if you have them.

3.     Water the Soil, Not the Leaves: A drip hose puts the water into the soil, where it needs to go, and keeps plant leaves dry, which helps keep disease under control.  You can place mulch over a drip hose, further conserving water in your garden. Once in place, a drip hose will save you time, and can even be set with an automatic timer, watering without you having to be home!  Instructions to make a drip hose out of a leaky old hose are below.

4.     Water Deeply and Less Often:  Water deeply to fully soak the soil, then wait until it is nearly dry again to water.  This encourages deep roots to grow, which will make the plant more resilient to drought and other stresses. 

5.     Dig Swails: Swails are trenches dug along the curve of a hill to capture water running down the incline.  Dig a 6” deep trench along the downhill side of a garden bed, and fill it in with wood chips to keep water close to your garden plants. 

6.     Limit Weeds:  Weeds drink up water from your soils!

7.     Save Rainwater: Using a rainwater catchment system, you can significantly reduce your municipal water usage. 

Making a drip hose with an old busted hose:

• Get new life out of an old leaky garden hose by turning it into a drip hose.  Once they are in place, drip hoses help save time and water! 

• Take your hose and place it over some scrap wood.   Starting where the hose will actually be watering the soil, use a 1/16^th drill bit to drill a hole every 2-3”.  

• Shake out the little bits that were drilled out, and attach hose to spigot.  Flush out the hose with water.  If you won’t be connecting the end of this hose to another, you will need to clamp off the end.  This can be done by cutting off the metal at the end, then folding the end back and securing with some wire or a small clamp. 

• Place the drip hose on top of the soil as close to the plant roots as you can manage, anchoring the hose with ground pins.  Start by turning the drip hose on for 20 minutes, adjusting the watering time as your garden needs! 

Hub Gardens at One Year

tomatoes thrive on our sunny patio
at the entrance to the food pantry

a row of cabbages in one of our garden beds
featuring soil built from sheet mulching

It's like a dream come true here at Mother Hubbard's Cupboard.  We've always wanted to share our community gardens with all of the folks using our food pantry services. Our three community gardens at Crestmont, Butler Park and Banneker Community Center have always been open and accessible to everyone, but sometimes seeing is believing. It can be challenging to convey the beauty and convenience of growing food right outside your door...unless...well, you have some food growing right outside your door!

from old washing machine basins to leaky wheel
barrows, many everyday objects can be
repurposed into planters

compost bins made from repurposed shipping pallets

Since moving into our new space last June, our on-site gardens have gone from zero to abundant in just twelve short months. Designed to showcase a number of methods of growing food in small spaces, the Hub garden site includes raised beds, window boxes, found-object container gardening, straw bale gardening, a food forest, herb spiral, perennial beds, lasagne/sheet mulched beds, and STRAWBERRIES! With an emphasis on keeping costs down and conserving resources, our gardens feature compost bins made from re-purposed wooden pallets, rain barrels, a low-tech irrigation system and plenty of mulch (straw, leaves, wood chips...).

a perennial bed lines the front of the building.
also in view: rain barrels and a new picnic table

permaculture inspired herb spiral built during a Hub workshop

Garden interns hand out seeds, plants and gardening tips from our patio, and lead folks into the garden to learn about growing food at home or to take home samples of freshly picked fruits and vegetables. Pantry patrons have picked strawberries, harvested spinach, peas, herbs and other greens, and youth groups have toured, tasted planted and harvested.

a view of the irrigation system and our new sign inviting
folks to join us in the garden

Window boxes constructed by eagle Scouts
line the ramp railing, and host edibles
such as this trailing squash vine

MHC's Garden Coordinator Kendra Brewer, remarked at a recent garden workday "The Hub garden is now where we hoped it would be in our first year. It's a real garden now."