I've upgraded (sorta) my manual watering system to a sprinkler system. By a sprinkler system I mean the cheapest ass sprinkler ($5) I could find. I have been talking with some other gardeners at work and one was talking about 'deep watering' - something which I have never done.

Typically, I'll go out in the garden in the morning to water. As soon as I get up I make some fresh coffee and then enjoy my cup while I'm out watering. I usually spend about 5 minutes watering each 16 square foot bed, usually attempting to keep the water off of the leaves of the plants.

While I really wanted to start using a drip hose (I actually have 2 already just sitting in the shed), I think the plants are way to big at this point to try to weave the hose around them. Plus I'd need some pretty slick tricks to get the hose across the paths (well, actually under them!). So for now I took the slacker route and am just going for overhead watering. The gardener at work said that is how she does it and has never had any problem. She will leave it on for about 4-5 hours once a week and that's good enough.

Wow - only having to water once a week. I honestly don't know how I feel about that. I really love my mornings when I'm out there watering. But I figured I'd give it a try since it sounds like my plants are thirsty!

So last night I hooked up the sprinkler and let it water the tomato, bean, pepper, and herb beds. I only had it on about 2 hours, but it was a first run so to speak. I kinda feel bad about wasting the water (some of it gets on the paths), but then again it will just evaporate and come back down somewhere else - so is it really wasteful (oh, how philosophical).

I'll try to keep up with it and see if I notice a difference. Next I'm going to try putting it between the tomato/bean beds and the potato/salad bed. The tomatoes will block it from getting the herb bed (which is OK - herbs do ok in dryer soil) and hopefully it will reach over the bean bed into the pepper bed. I'll keep ya posted!