How long do you water your garden for?

[IRememberXanadu]

We have been watering our garden daily (lawn and flowers in the ground). We move the sprinkler every few minutes. However my DP just told me that apparently water needs to go down six inches to allow grass/plants to really benefit from watering. This might well be true but I haven't a clue how long it would take a sprinkler to deliver enough water to reach six inches down. So I'm just wondering whether we should simply water our garden for longer, or maybe twice daily. How often and how long for do you water yours?

I water my vegetables every other day, I don't water my grass and other plants at all. The plants are normally fine and are in a shadier spot in the garden, and I wouldn't waste water on the lawn to be fair (but I have a bigger veg patch than lawn so my priorities are different! 😁)

We tend to leave the hose one each area it covers for about 5 mins or so. We probably should water for longer, but I balance the need for conserving water against watering the veg and this seems to come out about right.

Grass roots are 2-6" long so the 6" is the maximum you need to water and will possibly be overdoing it depending on your soil structure and terrain. Lawns need 1-2 inches of water per week (actual water not depth it goes down) so can you put a container under your sprinkler and see how long it takes to fill up to an inch or 2?

Its actually better for your plants to do a really good drenching once or twice a week than lighter waterings more frequently. So instead of moving to watering twice a day, can you double the amount of time you leave the sprinkler in position when you do water?

My plants are all in pots, which dry out quicker than plants in the ground. In this weather I water with a hose pipe every other day. (But I might not be able to do it for long if there's a hosepipe ban).

If I didn't water daily my annuals would die. They start wilting after 36 - 48 hours (they are in full sun)...

We water the flowers in pots everyday, using water we have saved from kitchen etc.
Grass we are not watering, such a waste of water, yes grass is dry and brown but it will come back.

I don't water anything in the ground. Our grass is awful anyway because of the dogs. I water (big) pots every other day and the greenhouse daily.

You really don’t need to water your lawn daily.
I take the hose round and do ten seconds on everything.

I never water the lawn.

My borders are watered every 3-4 days in heat like this and I would spend about 30 mins with the hose on full, working my way around about 15m of border.

I concentrate most water on anything new, especially thirsty or showing signs of water stress.

If you water every day, you risk the plants never bothering to put down deep roots to seek out water because there is always some at the surface of the soil bed.

The only things I would go out daily for in weather like this, are the pots. I would water smaller pots every day and the larger ones every other day, with a good soak.

Things are tougher than you think. I have seedlings up on the allotment that are just an inch high, got watered yesterday and I would expect them to be fine until tomorrow when I'll pop up to water them again. All the established veg gets a soak every 3 days in top heat. Every 5-6 days in normal temps.

Vegetables and pots, and anything newly planted should be watered. Everything else is a waste of water.

Lawns do not need watering, even after looking like a dried crisp they will green up after some rain.

Your husband is right that the water needs to get down to the roots. Frequent shallow watering on flower beds encourages the roots to the surface, where they will suffer in a dry spell. Little and often does not work ref watering.

I tend to use my watering can instead of the hose, to limit the amount of water I use. I don’t have a water meter, but we should all be trying to use less water.

But please leave out water for the birds and hedgehogs please.

You shouldn’t be watering grass at all , it’s a complete waste of water unless it’s turf that has only just been laid . We water our pots every day , tomatoes twice a day and the borders every other day usually but are doing them daily at the moment because we are SE and some of my hydrangeas look like they will wilt without .

Agree with everyone, criminal to waste water on a lawn. Just do pots and new plants or ones showing stress and obviously as late as possible in the evening so it doesn't all just evaporate.

Yes to bowls of water for wildlife

I never water the lawn - it will recover once the rain comes again. Allegedly it learns to survive drought better if you don't water it.
I only water pots, veg, baskets and anything that looks like it's wilting. Anything needing water in borders gets a couple of minutes with the hosepipe. We are on a water meter!

Scientifically though, they are actually less likely to die if you water them a huge amount but only once or twice a week.

Frequent shallow watering leads to a greater amount of roots near the surface of the soil, which dries out quicker, leading to the plants not coping without water

Infrequent deep watering leads to deeper roots, the deeper soil doesn't dry out as quickly so the plants cope without water better.

Lawn? The point of grass is that it is robust and growns back after a drought.

Annuals, water well and then mulch as you shouldn't need to water things planted in the ground in the UK, you need to water less often, let the mulch hold the moisture in and encourage them to grow roots deeper to find the water they need.

At the moment, we water plants that we have recently planted, and pots and the polytunnel/greenhouse. And we are in the South of France. No way would we water the lawn.

So do you all let your lawns go brown in summer? Surely the point of having one is to enjoy it looking lush and beautiful (and green)? Or is that just me?

I've been watering all day every day this week with the sprinkler but the grass is still going brown :(

I leave in 15-20 mins in each place then move it.

It's much better to give plants a good soak with a water can than a quick sprinkle with the hose. If you do use the hose you new to count to at least 10 slowly for each plant with the hose on full not shower mode. Every other day is what dh does.

Don't water until the evening or you'll scorch the plants.

I only water my veg, pots and planters first thing in the morning or last thing at night. Water bill is expensive as it is.

It only goes brown in the hottest part of the year and only in a hot year.

One of the benefits of not watering it, is that it's toughened up and so doeesn't go brown so easily. But yes, the nice look of a green lawn is not worth the water (to me). Much as I love my garden.

A good rain shower and it'll green back up again within days.

We’ve been contacted by the water company and asked not to water at all at the moment given the heat. Using our water butt to water the pots but leaving the rest atm. The lawn is a bit crispy in places but will bounce back

I only water things in pots. Would never water a lawn, and plants in borders are planted to cope with conditions, eg hot dry border planted with plants that need those conditions.

Please don't water your lawn, it really doesn't need it. OK, it won't look like a bowling green in hot, dry weather, but it will come back after rain. It's such a waste of a precious commodity.

We water pots every couple of days when it's hot and some things in the ground like roses every couple of weeks when they get a feed. Don't water shrubs and most perennials at all - we have a decent depth of mulch over garden beds.

we have three large water butts which collect rainwater so we go quite some time before we have to use mains water on the garden, something I hate doing.

Yes, we do, because it is a waste of water to keep lawns green. In a drought they will dry up and go brown, but it will come back to life when rains begin again. It's a survival strategy grass has.

I'm watering pots daily (because it doesn't rain in pots and it's a limited amount of soil for roots) and any plant that isn't long established, such as your annuals would be. Water early morning if you can, so any drops have the chance to evaporate from leaves (might get scorched in strong sun which is unsightly) but the water doesn't have time to drain away and is available for your plants' roots when they need it most.

If you can reuse water from your house or a rain barrel, that's even better. Mulch between the plants will help with water loss through evaporation.

My husband uses the sprinkler a lot on the main lawn, he's scarified and reseeded it recently so it needs watering in. Then we've got a lot of vegetables, rhododendrons and other plants that can die without watering so I'd say the sprinkler is on about 4 hours a day at the moment.

Frankly I'm glad my lawn has got brown - it means I don't have to mow it as much! It grows so fast when it's rainy I'm glad of the respite!

Veg and pits watered every couple of days - the rest gets left