Stupid question about watering...

[viccat]

I'm still fairly new to gardening (after some mixed success in the previous couple of years) so bear with me...

How often/how much do you water your garden at different times of the year? I realise I mainly think of watering when it's warm and dry (i.e. summer!) but less so in the winter. I have two raised beds covered in bark chip, mainly growing hardy perennials at the moment. I watered last week and everything seem to have a growth spurt, now the ground is looking dry again. But I've also read watering makes the roots move towards the surface and that's bad?

I know to water any container plants regularly, I assume the root issue isn't an issue for containers?

[florentina1]

So much depends on how well established the plants are. Big plants have strong roots which can retain water. Newer smaller plants will need watering more frequently.

If the raised bed is standing with bare soil underneath, with fairly established plants, then once a week is enough. Much less this time of year.. If there is a base to the planter then more often, twice of three times a week in hot weather. I always water at night when the soil is cool and really drench the soil.

The most damage is done by frequent light watering in hot weather.

[billybagpuss]

Yes I agree with Florentina

If it is hot you need to water early morning or evening and really drench it. At the moment I only have a few shrubs in pots and they are getting watered when I remember which isn't as often as they should. When I have the main summer pots they will get watered every evening (except when I'm on holiday as my kids are useless so they will probably die)

[steppemum]

you need your bark chip to work as a mulch, to stpp the soil from drying out, so you don;t want to soak the bark chip, you need that to stay dry, you want to soak underneath it.

In my actual flower beds (which are not raised) I don;t water anything, not even in warm weather, unless it is newly planted. But I have mostly larger, more established plants.

[WellTidy]

My garden is a mix of established shrubs and very young plants. In summer, I water about 5 times a week. I have watered the garden once so far this year (yesterday) as we haven't had rain for over a week and it has been warmish, but I water the pots about weekly.

[ScreamScreamIceCream]

I have a small West facing garden which is about 5 degrees Celsius warmer than the surrounding area due to walls and fences. I have some plants in pots with water reservoirs, two small raised beds and the rest in the ground.

In deepest Winter I water all the pots once every two weeks. By end of May to August I end up having to fill the reservoirs every day. If it goes above 30 Celsius I have to fill them twice a day.

In summer if there is no rain for 2 weeks I will then start weekly watering the smaller established plants, smaller shrubs in the ground and one raised bed. If there is no rain for 4-5 weeks I start weekly watering the larger established shrubs. I ended up with a fungal infection in one shrub which is apparently due to being weakened by lack of water hence the watering. The other raised bed is full of dry tolerant herbs so I don't water it at all.