I have very porous soil and garden in an arid climate. We hear that the "rule of thumb" for a lawn is to provide 1 inch of water each week. I suspect that this is something of a minimum and, of course, depends on the week -- the dryness, windiness, amount of sunshine, heat . . . A garden soil may have organic material to help hold the moisture. It may have a mulch covering it with the same benefit. But, be cautious about relying too much on a mulch. For one thing, when water is applied to the surface of the mulch, it often requires quite a bit of water for it to work its way thru to the soil - wet mulch/dry soil. Not only feeling the soil but paying close attention to the plants is a good idea. Wilting is not a good thing. Sometimes plants come back fine but, going on any length of time, wilting slows growth. I can't water on just any day. My gardens are at a distance so irrigation has to fit into a schedule. Lots of folks are in this situation -- they are elsewhere thru many of the hours of the week. Here's what I do: I plan on getting 1 1/2 inches of water on my garden each week. And, I do that 3/4th of an inch, at a time. Twice then . . . each week. If, by chance, it rains - - great! I find out how much it rains and take that into account. In fact, I measure the water that falls on the gardens and time the sprinklers that are putting it there. Yeah, it is all over-head irrigation . . . It only takes a couple of tuna fish cans, set at various distances from the sprinkler to get an idea of how much water you are getting out there. Don't do it by-guess and by-golly. Don't do that on your lawn. I see so many folks who seem to have absolutely no clue how much water they are putting on the ground. And, not every sprinkler is the same -- some move an awful lot of water onto a very small piece of ground. Some sprinklers cast a little water, far and wide. Throwing 1/10th of an inch of water down is probably going to do virtually no good, whatsoever. It may even do harm. Dumping 3 or 4 inches on the ground at once should almost be a criminal offense. A couple tuna fish cans, that's all it takes . . . digitSteve

You are generally better off watering longer but less often. When you water small amounts very frequently, the lawn and garden stay wet on the surface nearly all the time, making an ideal environment for fungus problems. Plants also don't put down deep roots since they don't need to, so are more susceptible to drought stress if there is a gap in the watering, and if your sprinklers aren't completely uniform, you get patches that never get enough water. By watering less frequently, but with more water so it soaks down in, the surface will dry out and reduce fungus problems and the roots will go down deeper to follow the water. I water usually once a week, sometimes every 5 days during the hottest part of the summer when days are consistently in the 90's--it depends on when the grass starts to show water stress, but the water will reach a depth of 24 inches or more from each watering. My climate gets virtually no rainfall, so irrigation is all it gets. When we do get measurable rain in late spring, then I will space the watering out further, based on when the grass just starts to show some drouth stress. What I'm getting at is let the ground dry out to a depth as long as your middle finger or a little more, then give it a good watering, then let it dry to that depth before the next watering and set your timer to follow that schedule.

Wow those are sunny warm conditions. Of outside you might be able to do it every other day. Really depends inthat mix. Unless anyone has better advice just do it enough to keep the soil moist to dry side of moist, not wet. Digg 2-3 inches down with ur finger to really tell. Te top might be bone dry but it could still be moist half way down where the roots are. If in doubt, go dry.

There has been a long thread going on in the Compost and Mulch Forum about what time of day to water. Somebody started the thread with the old wives tale that it is bad to water plants in the heat of the day. Several scientific types provided evidence that this is not true. One guy, who seems to be in the know, said it is important for some less sturdy plants, or young plants, to receive water mid-day when temps are really hot. The thread is entitled something like "Things My Mither Told Me". They all discussed overhead versus ground watering. I've long been a believer in ground watering. The reasons given for not using sprinklers, or watering from above, don't have anything to do with leaf burn. I have to water mid-day twice a week because of my schedule. I have seen no ill affects. By the way, desrtlvr, the Conchas are growing. There has been some leaf yellowing. I didn't know if that was a result of too little, or too much water. I opted for believing the plants needed more water. Seems to have been the right choice. Lorna