Watering Questions Answered with Waterworks Irrigation
If you’ve been battling the heat of the summers and spending way too much time hand watering, this blog is for you! Irrigation can be very intimidating to do on your own. In fact, we have done a few systems ourselves and realized it’s best to leave it up to the experts. They know how to work efficiently, they get it done in 1-2 days, and the systems connected to wi-fi are so handy! We recently worked with Waterworks Irrigation in Victoria B.C. to fix our vegetable garden system and to irrigate our newest section — berries and flowers! They also specialize in landscape plans and hedges. I am going to share tips we learned from Waterworks Irrigation and yes, they can help you even if you have existing irrigation systems!
Irrigating Vegetable Beds: Let’s talk about the vegetable garden first — we chose to do small, ¼ inch irrigation lines in our 8x4’ raised bed for maximum coverage. I tend to crop rotate and mix what I plant in the beds each year, so having flexibility with the irrigation lines is very helpful. You can see in the photos throughout this blog that I have 5-7 lines in the beds. The pros about this type of irrigation is you can manipulate it easily, but you need a lot of lines and it’s a slow drip so learning your moisture levels are important. We did this ourselves the previous year but we had the experts check it out! The biggest tip we got from Waterworks Irrigation was to put a valve on each box to be able to shut off one box at a time. This is genius and so handy. Some boxes are empty going into the fall, or even in the summertime after a large harvest for a week or so but I need to water the rest of the garden so this makes sense. I highly recommend it!
Irrigating Flower Rows & Berries: Waterworks Irrigation suggested larger hoses and two lines per bed. We have some perennials like roses, blueberries and raspberries in here which like less frequent watering but for a longer period of time then say our annual flowers. I planted annuals like zinnias & cosmos in three rows. Having the hoses in between the rows has worked wonderful this summer, and we are very happy with the coverage. Again, Waterworks Irrigation suggested shut offs on each row and this is a must! For example, dahlias don’t need water after you plant the tuber until it starts to sprout or you risk the tuber rotting; but we still needed to water the newly planted raspberries and blueberries, so shutting off the dahlia row made this simple and stress-free.
3 Watering Questions Answered by Waterworks Irrigation:
1. How often should we water?: 30-45 minutes for drip irrigation daily in the heat as it’s a very slow drip. This is good for trees, perennials and vegetable gardens. Know your sunlight though! If it’s part-shade, try to water in the morning so it’s not wet all night into mid-day. If you are watering perennial flowers, trees or blueberries, Waterworks Irrigation suggests every other day or every three days, and for 45 minutes for deep watering.
2. When is the best time to water your garden? Early morning is best, you can do evening as well but morning is always best as the soil isn’t wet all night which could result in some plants rotting.
3. Should your vegetable garden be in its own zone? Yes! This is important as vegetables are different then perennials and they may need water every day, especially in the summer heat. However, perennials or shrubs like longer water sessions every other day or every three days.
A huge thank you to Waterworks Irrigation for fixing our watering system in the garden and adding a brand new system to our flowers & berry patch! Connecting it all to our home on wi-fi has been a lifesaver, especially during the summer vacations. Waterworks Irrigation is a wonderful supporter of our community here in Victoria, and a sponsor of the Harbour Cats baseball team. They are in business for the long run, feel free to reach out to them with any questions you may have! You can watch our collaboration video on Instagram HERE.
* Note: This was a sponsored blog post. Some links featured in the above post are commissionable/affiliate links.