I know raised beds and containers definitely need more frequent watering than in-ground plants. Soil also dries out faster if it has a lot of sand in it, which unfortunately mine does. I'm always baffled by how my soil can be so rock hard when I need to dig into it, but water will pass right through it in seconds.

I have a fiance who is very stingy about the water bill, so I try to space my watering out as much as I can and water deeply each time (I just run the hose at the base of all of them rather than using sprinklers...too much evaporation). For my small trees and shrubs that have all been planted at least a year ago, I water once about every 5-7 days in weather like this. Or, I water them when they start to look wilty or crispy if it happens sooner than that.

For all my fruit, veggies, and newly transplanted shrubs, I shoot for every 2-3 days, or whatever I can get away with with my guy. He doesn't seem to have the gardening bug at all and has been letting me have it for daring to plant shrubs in a drought year. Sigh. Hopefully he'll appreciate them a little more when they're a big, gorgeous privacy hedge instead of little foot-tall obstacles that he has to mow around. He doesn't really get why I want to plant a garden, either, though I'm sure he'll have no problem eating all the fresh produce!

How are you watering? Do have things mulched?

I have to water containers everyday, but I will be watering my garden for the first time today, at least part of my garden will be watered today. Our ground has been damp since our huge rainfall. I am trying to get it weeded before I turn the water on it so only half will probably get watered today. The other half is still damp except for the top inch or so, but I have to pull some grass and weeds before I add water.

I have pulled out most of peas and replaced them with long beans and green beans. Today I am planting cowpeas, and when the last peas come out, I will plant Malabar spinach. Hopefully by the end of the day I can sit down and plant some flats of fall stuff.

I don't water on a schedule of any sort. I just water the plants when they look dry. We have all kinds of soil on our property and some of it retains water much longer than the soil in other areas, so that some of it needs water more often and other areas need water much less often. The age of the plants has a lot to do with how often a plant needs water too. Plants that have been in the ground for three full years or longer are generally much more well-established than younger plants and go a lot longer in between waterings.

In the veggie garden, every raised bed drains differently because the soil at one end of the garden has more sand and drains more quickly, while soil at the other end has a lot more clay and drains more slowly. So, I just watch the beds and water the plants in any given bed when they look like they need it. I keep my beds heavily mulched and only water with a hand held hose, soaker hoses or drip irrigation. I don't like using overhead irrigation via sprinklers because of the evaporation rate, and because wet foliage is prone to diseases.

At the lower end of the garden, for example, tomato plants transplanted into a raised bed in early April are very well established in soil that is well amended but still has a heavy clay content. They also are very heavily-mulched. They get deep watering once every 5 to 7 days when no rain is falling at this time of year.

By contrast, at the upper end of the garden, I just put in a row of melons, a row of okra and two rows of bush lima beans (all from transplants) when I dug potatoes this weekend. They are in a bed with a lot more sand mixed in with the clay, so right now they are getting watered every day until they have established and are putting out new growth. After that, as they grow and become more well-established, I'll be able to water less often, especially after they're tall enough that I can pile up heaps of mulch which, right now, would bury the small plants.

All our trees and shrubs are well-established, so they and the lawn get watered once every couple of weeks. Back when I first planted them years ago, I probably watered them about once or twice a week depending on how dry it was.

The bermuda grass lawn gets water only if it gets it "accidentally" when I am watering the shrub and tree beds or the perennial beds. I hate the bermuda grass and deliberately withhold water from it hoping it will die. So far it hasn't. If grass fires start happening in our neighborhood and I've let the bermda grass go dormant and turn brown (which is occurring right now), I'll start watering it again to green it up.

We have soaker hoses on the ground around our foundation and water the foundation area religiously to avoid having the dense red clay soil crack and make the foundation crack along with it. I'd rather have a higher water bill every month than have to pay for expensive foundation repair.

May was very nice. We had almost 6" of rain and hardly had to water at all. Our water bill was like a mid-winter water bill. June is a completely different story.

Like Carol, I have to water containers every day, so I planted a lot fewer containers this year than usual because I was expecting drought and didn't want to have to water containers endlessly. Right now the container-grown tomatoes are happy with once-a-day watering, but if it gets much hotter, they'll be needing it twice a day.

If this heat wave doesn't break soon, I'm going to start putting shadecloth up over the tomatoes. It sure seems early to do that, but it is so hot here.

If you look at the Mesonet soil moisture levels, our county looks great, but I think the moisture sensors must be malfunctioning. I dug potatoes all weekend, so I dug down about 6 to 8 inches below grade level in those beds, and the soil was dry, dry, dry. From looking at the mesonet soil moisture charts, you'd think the soil was nice and moist, which it absolutely is not.

I spent minimal time in the garden early this morning, planting a row of red sunflowers and watering the news transplants, and pulling a few weeds. Then, I ran errands, cleaned house and waited for the internet service company service reps to come check our wireless antenna. (They replaced a wire and I'm hoping that will put a halt to our recent internet service issues.) It is so hot that today seemed like a good day to be doing "inside chores". Tomorrow I hope to get outside early and spend two or three hours harvesting, weeding and adding another layer of mulch to some of the beds.

Because we had good rainfall in May, I haven't had to water a whole lot yet, but as the soil dries up and our rain chances seem very slim, I expect I'll be watering more and more.

In hot, dry summers I am very careful to avoid over-feeding and over-watering because the last thing I want is plants with tons of lush growth that demand lots and lots of water to keep them looking good.

A lot of the gardeners here in Love County stop watering at the end of June amd just let their veggie gardens die. It is an economic decision where they compare what they're spending watering versus what they are harvesting and decide whether they are harvesting enough to make the watering worthwhile. I have done that during years with Extreme or Exceptional dought,but if we're only Abnormally Dry or in Moderate Drought, I tend to get good enough production that the watering is worthwhile to me.

Dawn

I water deeply about every third day unless something looks wilty. I was wondering if that type of water schedule is okay for melons. I know their flavor is dependent on not being watered down. Should I cut my melons down to once a week now that they are producing?

Kelly