Community Gardens - Watering and Weed Control In Your Garden

As we continue our Community Garden series, we will now discuss the importance of properly watering your garden as well as understanding the best way to weed it. One would think these two topics are quite self-explanatory, but, there are some methods to each one can consider.

When it comes to watering your garden, to get the best saturation in the ground, one should water early morning or late in the evening. Watering during the day could lead to a lot of water that just evaporates and doesn't go into the ground. If you live in an area where water is costly or you are cautious of how much water you use do to its scarcity, you can also consider using a drip line (a hose or tape with holes in it). Using drip lines will help you minimize water loss and deliver the water exactly to where it is needed, at the roots.

Keeping the water on the ground, rather than spraying your plants, will help keep water off of leaves, fruits and flowers. This is important when it is hot as it will do little to benefit the plant and may lead to scorching.

Other water conservation tactics include:

• Plant only plants that are well-adapted to your area and the average rainfall in your region
• Place mulch over the soil. This will help hold in the ground's moisture
• Weed regularly, because weeds will pull moisture from your plants
• Install a rain catchments system to make the most of rainfall
• Use drip irrigation to minimize evaporation
• Avoid planting or transplanting during dry spells
• Enhance sandy soils with organic mater, to improve moisture retention

When it comes to watering, each type of plant has its own moisture needs. You can do some research and find out which plants require more or less amounts of water. It would be most efficient for you to give your garden a good soaking once a week, which will penetrate deep into the soil, rather than watering just a little bit each day.

Now for weed control, which will also help you conserve water.

Weeds are problematic for every gardener, not only do they rob the ground of water but also the surrounding plants of nutrients and sunlight. To keep your weeds at bay, try to remove this as soon as they come up, typically they begin in early spring and summer. This will keep them from going to seed and replanting themselves. You may want to make sure to remove the entire weed - including its root - because some plants are able to re-grow from just a small piece of root.

If possible, weed during hot, dry periods, because the weeds will be easy to remove and will wither on the surface. When using a hoe, try to dig as shallowly as possible, to avoid disturbing the roots of your garden plants.

If you are going to use weed killer or chemicals on your weeds, follow some basic rules such as apply weed killer in the spring, when it will kill newly emerging weeds and prevent re-growth of new ones for a few months; do not apply weed killer on a windy day, when chemicals can be carried onto other plants, or cover plants with plastic sheeting during application; if you apply weed killer in the vicinity of edibles, only eat fruits and vegetables once they have been thoroughly cleansed with a produce wash.

Putting chemicals on your weeds should be your last resort as it can be harmful to your vegetables and the groundwater.

Between watering your garden properly and weeding it by the suggestions outlined above, your garden should be quite healthy and resilient whereupon you will produce large yummy vegetables to eat.

About the Author: Pamela Ravenwood is a freelance writer, journalist, and writing coach who lives in the desert. In addition to spending her days writing, she also loves to tend to her organic garden where she grows as much of her own food as possible. In this, she counts on her cord reel to keep her hoses from drying out from the desert heat.