Vegetables only need sunlight, water and somewhere to put their roots down to survive so you must water your vegetable garden

Watering your vegetable garden is something you must do, but there are easier ways that walking around with a watering can or a hose. I prefer trickle or drip irrigation

because once you have rolled out the pipes you can basically forget about it. And with trickle irrigation because the water flows downwards it encourages the roots to grow deeper. And the deeper the roots go the more they break up the soil and aerate it. When using a watering can or hose you are just watering the top of the soil so the roots just stay in the top, as there is no reason to grow deeper.

And the best part of using trickle irrigation is it saves time and you don’t have to worry about watering.

If it rains just switch it off. If you want vegetables you must water and water as often as they need it. It is best to water in the afternoon when it is not so hot so there is less water lost to evaporation. If you live in a really hot climate where evaporation is a problem use mulch. Mulch will conserve moisture in the soil so use plenty of mulch.

Also in desert conditions water is evaporated through the plant so pull out all unnecessary plants and only keep your vegetable plants.

Just have bare dirt or mulch around all your vegetable plants and this will conserve a lot of moisture. In places where water is scarce you must do this, only grow the plants you need. And use trickle irrigation to get the roots deeper to tap the soil moisture.

Check out our Vegetable Gardening page and see what you think, but now is the time to stop thinking and just throw a few seeds around the house to see what happens.