That big clump of soggy soil is way to wet. I had to get to the bottom of the problem, so I did a quick calibration check on my irrigation system. To do this, I set an empty tuna can directly between two sprayer heads and ran the system for 10 minutes. After the cycle was over, I measured the amount of water in the can. It turns out our system puts out about a quarter inch of water in 10 minutes. According to most experts, the average garden needs about one inch of water per week, so I found the source of our problem: we were over-watering our garden.
Using my advanced math skills, I did some quick calculations and determined that the our garden would be best served by running our sprinklers four times per week for ten minutes each cycle. I have reset our system to correct the over-watering issue and, hopefully, the result will look like this:
See how the soil is moist but crumbly? Complicating the issue is the high clay content of our soil. The benefit of soil with lots of clay in it is that it retains water well. That said, it also makes it very easy to create the soggy mess seen in the first picture. If you are working in sandy soil, you stand less of a chance of over-watering and more of a chance of having soil that looks something like this:
Obviously, that is too dry. Further complicating the issue is the fact that weather changes through the course of the season. It is best to keep tabs on your soil moisture and adjust watering according to what you are seeing. Your plants will also tell you if you have been getting enough moisture to them. If they are starting to whither, it may be due to too much water or too little. If you can visually see that your plants are in distress, the damage has already been done. That said, don't give up on them, just try adjusting your watering schedule and see if the plant comes back.
Methods:
By Hand: The advantage of hand watering is that you can most easily tailor it to what your garden needs. In addition, it allows you the opportunity to really look at the plants and diagnose any problems early. On the other hand, you must have the time an patience to stand in your garden with a watering can. For all but the most disciplined gardeners, hand watering usually leads to an under watered garden.
Sprinklers: Using a sprinkler allows you to cover a large area in a very short amount of time. It is also the most wasteful method of watering, as much of the water lands on plant leaves and evaporates, never making it to the soil.
Irrigation Systems: There are a variety of watering systems on the market that may incorporate micro sprinklers, misters, and drip lines. The primary benefit of these systems is that, like sprinklers, they allow you deliver water to the garden without taking up much of your time. They are also more efficient at delivering water to the soil, where it is needed, than are sprinklers. This is probably the method by which you are most likely to over water.
We use is the DIG system available at Home Depot. It is easy to assemble and offers a variety of sprinkler heads for use in a wide array of applications. We are currently using an adjustable sprayer throughout our garden, but are planning on experimenting with DIG's drip lines and misters in certain locations.
Timers: We have found the DIG hose end timers to be about the easiest to use, though there are several other options including irrigation controllers that allow for running multiple lines from a single controller. This is my answer to that:
It may not be a thing of beauty, but it was fairly simple to construct and will be easy to expand and modify. It also saved me having to run power to my garden and having to deal with all of the components of a multi-line controller.
Much of the information in this post came from Edward C Smith's excellent book The Vegetable Gardener's Bible, from Storey Publishing, 2000.
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