As folks all across the country prepare to plant their vegetable gardens, a few questions have to be asked: What will I plant, how will I plant it, and how will I water my vegetable plants?
While I can’t tell you what you want to plant and how you’ll want to lay your garden out, I can give advice on how to water your garden, particularly if you live in the dry, desert portions of the United States.
The western United States, unlike the eastern half, can’t rely on the weather to provide enough water for crops, so sprinkler and irrigation systems are required to let vegetable plants grow.
As convenient as an automatic sprinkling system is for vegetable gardens, they aren’t practical for your average vegetable gardener. Automatic sprinkler systems are expensive and difficult to maintain. When a pipe breaks, a gardener has to fix it themselves or call a professional to come fix it for them. Not practical unless the system is already installed. That means the gardener will have to manually water the vegetable plants. Fortunately, there are options other than conventional sprinklers.
While many types of sprinklers line store shelves, I have found one watering system that has allowed my vegetable gardens to flourish, thrive, and conserve water, all at the same time. Soaker hoses have watered my vegetable garden for years, and they will water my garden for years to come. Here a few of the reasons why soaker hoses are more convenient and useful than conventional rain-birds and rotary sprinklers.
Soaker hoses only have to be set up once
As soon as you’ve lined your soaker hoses to water along the roots of the plants, you don’t have to move the hoses around the entire planting and harvesting season. Simply attach a regular hose to the end of the soaker hoses and let your plants receive drink. With a regular sprinkler, one has to drag hoses around in the mud. Not much fun.
Soaker hoses conserve water
Environmentally beneficial for those that live in dry desert communities. Many towns in deserts are placed on watering restrictions to conserve water. Soakers hoses save water because only the roots of the vegetable plants are watered, not the entire plant and surrounding dirt.
Soaker hoses cut down on the number of weeds
That’s because the empty dirt receives little extra drink. Therefore, weeds will mostly grow along the soaker hose, not the entire vegetable garden. Helps in the maintenance of the garden.
Soaker hoses make most vegetable plants grow and produce better
I have no scientific evidence for this, only personal experience. I used to water my vegetable garden with rotary sprinklers and rain-birds. That worked OK, but as soon as I switched to soaker hoses, my vegetable plants produced more. I can’t explain the phenomenon, but soaker hoses worked better. There is one notable exception. Potatoes grow better when watered with conventional sprinklers, probably because the potatoes grow over a wide area.
I highly recommend the use of soaker hoses in your vegetable garden this year. They are convenient, simple to use, and fairly cheap. The hoses can be used year after year, and help conserve precious water. I wish you luck in your gardening exploits this season!
