# Watering garden



## Chica22 (Feb 26, 2010)

We have recently installed an irrigation system and through trial and error trying to work out how often and for how long we should water the garden during the summer. The garden areas are small with 5 different areas with hardy plants and some recently planted (a month ago) geraniums etc, some of these plants are dying. 

Our summers are hot with little rain, but for the past month has not really exceeded 25c.

From research on the internet it stated not to overwater plants, so the system is set for 10 minutes, 3 times a week, should I increase this to daily, or increase the time but keep to 3 times a week. Any help would be greatly appreciated.


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## ccm47 (Oct 15, 2013)

I'm NOT a gardener to be honest but dabble.

Almeria (where I think you are) is one of the driest areas in Spain, so 10 mins 3 times a week is unlikely to be sufficient in the heat for geraniums, more like 5 minutes each day, preferably in the early evening when it won't evaporate. I think that is why Europeans tend to have them in containers as they are quite sensitive and need more care than most of the other plants.

We are on the coast about 1 hour away from Almeria airport, so closeish to you. 10 years on from planting our garden is a riot of colour. Bougainvillea, once established, will go crazy if left to its own devices; a Bird of Paradise plant bought when little more than a seedling is now 1 metre in diameter and we had to rip out the local purple creeper as it took over the terraces, it did so well. Our plants no longer get watered as they and the citrus and palm trees all thrive without regular care. Watering just seems to encourage the weeds to spring up. 

Hope that helps.


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## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

I live in the Comunidad de Madrid which also has hot summers, although Almeria is hotter. We have a watering system which is on for about 3 mins every day during the summer. 10 mins sounds like too much to me. Ours comes on around 10:00pm, early evening as recommended by ccm47 (which I estimate to be 6:00 - 8:00pm) is still too hot here. 

We took out the lawn that was here originally because it took too much water. The water bill went down quite dramatically actually. I would recommend that you use native plants as those are the ones adapted to the climate. 

It's true that at times it seems that we're only watering weeds though...
Do a search in the gardening thread on La Tasca. There are posts about watering on there


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## kalohi (May 6, 2012)

We live in Seville, where it gets very hot and dry in the summer. Depending on the weather we water from about late May through mid October once a day. For the first and last month or so in that period we run it for 3 minutes, and when it gets really hot for 5 minutes. We have very high water pressure so 3-5 minutes is enough, but if we had less pressure we'd have to run it for a longer time. We have it set to go off in the middle of the night. In the off months we run it manually as needed, ie when there are periods of no rain. 

We give plants that are newly planted extra care until they're established. That means extra watering as needed and maybe some shading.

I've never tried planting geraniums in the garden. I've only ever seen them in pots around here. There's probably a reason for that. I'd look around and see what other people have planted in their gardens in your area, and stick to those plants.


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## Hepa (Apr 2, 2018)

Canary Islands, I water parts of the garden daily, other parts every other day.

I use a manual system and the water I use comes free of charge so I am not restricted in any way, the amount I use depends on the weather. I too water in the evenings.

I grow fruit, vegetables and flowers and have about 1500 square meters of land, most of which is cultivated


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## Megsmum (Sep 9, 2012)

As we are are now heading towards summer we will be watering daily, everything , if we don’t water one day everything wilts. We don’t have irrigation we do it by hand!


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## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

Watering by hand is an option but it uses a LOT more water, and obviously, a lot of your time.


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## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

kalohi said:


> We live in Seville, where it gets very hot and dry in the summer. Depending on the weather we water from about late May through mid October once a day. For the first and last month or so in that period we run it for 3 minutes, and when it gets really hot for 5 minutes. We have very high water pressure so 3-5 minutes is enough, but if we had less pressure we'd have to run it for a longer time. We have it set to go off in the middle of the night. In the off months we run it manually as needed, ie when there are periods of no rain.
> 
> We give plants that are newly planted extra care until they're established. That means extra watering as needed and maybe some shading.
> 
> I've never tried planting geraniums in the garden. I've only ever seen them in pots around here. There's probably a reason for that. I'd look around and see what other people have planted in their gardens in your area, and stick to those plants.


We have had problems with the watering system and find that at night (ie 10 or 11pm) is better to run the system as you are still up and can spot problems easier/ earlier. It also has the advantage of cooling things off


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## Alcalaina (Aug 6, 2010)

Pesky Wesky said:


> Watering by hand is an option but it uses a LOT more water, and obviously, a lot of your time.


Why does it use a lot more water?


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## kalohi (May 6, 2012)

Pesky Wesky said:


> We have had problems with the watering system and find that at night (ie 10 or 11pm) is better to run the system as you are still up and can spot problems easier/ earlier. It also has the advantage of cooling things off


We used to run it earlier but had problems of getting everyone wet on those nights that we were up late enjoying the garden!


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## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

Alcalaina said:


> Why does it use a lot more water?


Because the water isn't used so efficiently. With a watering system you have a tube and you put a nozzle in where the plant is, or you plant where the nozzle is so just 3mins of water directly to the plant. I suppose it depends on the kind of garden you have and/ or the type of watering system you install, and how you water manually, but watering using a hose usually uses more water because people tend to "splash it all over"


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## baldilocks (Mar 7, 2010)

Pesky Wesky said:


> Because the water isn't used so efficiently. With a watering system you have a tube and you put a nozzle in where the plant is, or you plant where the nozzle is so just 3mins of water directly to the plant. I suppose it depends on the kind of garden you have and/ or the type of watering system you install, and how you water manually, but watering using a hose usually uses more water because people tend to "splash it all over"


We water by hand. All our plants with the exception of the grapevine are in pots on the patio - the water is directed into the pots until air bubbles stop rising to the surface. The grapevine is planted into the soil and needs a lot more water. So it is case of each to its needs.


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## Chica22 (Feb 26, 2010)

Thank you everyone for your replies. For 14 years we have hosed the garden daily, but it was starting to get to be a bit of a bind, hence the installation of the irrigation system. After reading the replies and taking a more detailed look at the garden, the more hardy plants, including boganvillas and roses are fine, it’s the newly planted geraniums, carnations etc that are dying, so as other posters have said, maybe we have planted the wrong flowers in the wrong place!, Neither of us are gardeners and tend to go to the garden Centre and buy plants we like the look of....another expensive lesson learned!!


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## Megsmum (Sep 9, 2012)

Pesky Wesky said:


> Watering by hand is an option but it uses a LOT more water, and obviously, a lot of your time.





Pesky Wesky said:


> Because the water isn't used so efficiently. With a watering system you have a tube and you put a nozzle in where the plant is, or you plant where the nozzle is so just 3mins of water directly to the plant. I suppose it depends on the kind of garden you have and/ or the type of watering system you install, and how you water manually, but watering using a hose usually uses more water because people tend to "splash it all over"


We do not use a hose. We water the garden bit by hand using watering cans, we know exactly what each plant needs.

The allotment is watered using a gravity fed irrigation system 
The orchard is watered by using 5 litres bottles which we wheelbarrow down. 

We use this method because we don’t have power apart from solar, it’s cheaper than installing tubes and more water towers over 6 acres of land! W

As for time....We are retired need something to do. While we are fit and healthy we will continue. eace:


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## Hepa (Apr 2, 2018)

Megsmum said:


> We do not use a hose. We water the garden bit by hand using watering cans, we know exactly what each plant needs.
> 
> :


Me too, I use a watering can for the same reason, our garden is on various terraces, I have several 500 litre tanks and one 1000 litre tank situated on the various levels.

When the water levels get low, I bring out the petrol powered water pump, and pump 4000 litres of water from the underground storage system to the various tanks.

The water in the underground tanks is replenished when we get free wet stuff falling from the sky, the rain is collected from the house roofs straight into the tanks. Not so many years ago this was the only water supply, so all the old houses had such a system.

Geraniums, nasturtiums, sweet pea and Aurum lily, they all grow wild here.


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## bikerboy123 (Sep 30, 2018)

one of the worst things you can do with established ground planted plants is to water them a little everyday, all this does is cause the plant to use the roots close to the surface to take up moisture
as this is where the water is, what you need to do is to soak the ground properly twice a week as this causes the plant to send down deeper roots to find the moisture, as for potted or newly planted plants then just use your judgement.


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## Chica22 (Feb 26, 2010)

bikerboy123 said:


> one of the worst things you can do with established ground planted plants is to water them a little everyday, all this does is cause the plant to use the roots close to the surface to take up moisture
> as this is where the water is, what you need to do is to soak the ground properly twice a week as this causes the plant to send down deeper roots to find the moisture, as for potted or newly planted plants then just use your judgement.


Excuse my ignorance but would 10 minutes soak the ground or would you suggest a longer time


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## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

bikerboy123 said:


> one of the worst things you can do with established ground planted plants is to water them a little everyday, all this does is cause the plant to use the roots close to the surface to take up moisture
> as this is where the water is, what you need to do is to soak the ground properly twice a week as this causes the plant to send down deeper roots to find the moisture, as for potted or newly planted plants then just use your judgement.


 Yes, this makes sense to a certain extent, but not all plants need deep roots. In fact I think most flowers don't.
Wiki

*



Drip irrigation is a type of micro-irrigation system that has the potential to save water and nutrients by allowing water to drip slowly to the roots of plants, either from above the soil surface or buried below the surface. The goal is to place water directly into the root zone and minimize evaporation. Drip irrigation systems distribute water through a network of valves, pipes, tubing, and emitters. Depending on how well designed, installed, maintained, and operated it is, a drip irrigation system can be more efficient than other types of irrigation systems, such as surface irrigation or sprinkler irrigation.

Click to expand...

*I know Wikipedia is not the be all and end all, but I still think it's worth investigating drip irrigation v suface irrigation for flowers. We've used it for @ 20 years and all is well!


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