Hopefully, your garden has been tilled, the seeds planted and if you’ve bought 6-packs of vegetables they’re also in the ground. You’ll get a few winter rains, but your garden will need supplemental watering. Drip irrigation is by far the easiest and most water-efficient way to go. Garden centers have information pamphlets with detailed instructions and everything you’ll need (including some plugs and a hole punch). We use 1-gallon per hour emitters on individual plants that are spaced apart (squash, cabbage, watermelon, etc). For rows of peas, parsnips, beets, and such we use a drip hose, which has a small hole every 8 inches. If you think this isn’t going to be enough water, just put another drip hose on the other side of the row, with the holes staggered. This will give you an opening every 4″. These will last through many, many seasons. When you want to put them somewhere else, just pull them out, plug the hole, and punch a new hole where it’s needed. I’m making this sound more complicated than it is. It really is a “diy” project. You’ll also need a battery-operated timer to attach between your faucet and the irrigation hose. In the winter we program the timer to water for 20 minutes 4 times a week. In the summer it’s 3 times a day, every day. I water by hand until the seeds start to sprout. It’s much easier to tell exactly where you need the hoses after the plants come up and the ground doesn’t really need a deep watering until you’ve got some roots to nourish.
An accountant by trade and a food blogger since 2009, Lois Britton fell in love with Polish cuisine during the years she lived in Poznań, Poland. As the creator of PolishHousewife.com, she loves connecting readers with traditional Polish recipes. Lois has a graduate certificate in Food Writing and Photography from the University of South Florida. She is the author of The Polish Housewife Cookbook, available on Amazon and on her website.
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