By Kim Kelly and John Fischer
This month we welcome John Fischer in his inimitable style and penchant for not wasting money as well as finding the easiest way to put water on your plants.
Plucking weeds from the garden on a regular basis is quite satisfying to me, but I am in the minority. Most gardeners like creating but not destroying by planting and not plucking.
Here is John’s appropriately snarky take on weeds and watering:
A: “Hey Honey, did you make sure the weeds got plenty of water when you watered the garden this morning?”
B: “Oh yes, and they are growing really fast with the warmer weather. You can hardly see the vegetables between the weeds.”
A: “Great!! That means I can spend the weekend weeding, instead of enjoying our new hammock.”
B: “Weren’t you going to work an extra shift this weekend so we can pay our huge water bill?”
If this sounds familiar, you are likely still watering your garden the old fashioned way — with a sprinkler, or by hand with a hose. These methods put water on every square inch of your garden instead of just on the places it’s needed. And they put water in a lot of places it’s not needed.
Different plants have different water requirements. Lettuce and corn are very thirsty; tomatoes and herbs, not so much. And watering weeds doesn’t make any sense — unless weeding is your way to find peace and contentment.
Drip irrigation will solve all of the problems that overhead watering creates, and it will solve some problems you didn’t even know you had.
Simple low pressure small tube drip systems are easy to install and inexpensive. And they last for years — some of my tubing has been in use for 30 seasons. The basic set-up consists of three parts.
1. Individual emitters that put out one or two gallons per hour in one spot. These are perfect for tomatoes, peppers, squash hills, basil and the like. One or two in the root zone means the plant gets water, and the weeds in between the tomatoes don’t. It’s a win-lose situation.
2. One-quarter-inch tubing with a small emitter hole every 6, 9 or 12 inches. These tubes are great for corn, beans, lettuce, carrots, beets and the like. Planted in rows, or for the smaller plants in small rectangular beds, the tubing snakes back and forth keeping the growing area damp, and the rows between the plants dry and weed free (OK — less weedy).
3. One-quarter-inch distribution tubing that leads from the one-half-inch main line to the individual emitters, or the perforated tubing. The half-inch tubing coming from the pressure reducer that connects to the hose can accommodate 15 to 20 feeder lines with either a 500-foot perforated tube or up to 20 individual emitters put out in a daisy chain. One tube for a bed of corn. One set of emitters for an area of tomatoes, peppers and squash.
The first time you put a system together, it will seem confusing. The second through 30th it will get easier, and since large parts of your setup can be used over and over, there will be less work after year one. The 15 one-gallon emitters I have on one daisy chain stay assembled and get used for tomatoes and peppers next year in a new section of the garden. The system comes out each year — for vegetables — because my food garden layout is different each year. But for ornamentals, a drip system can be left out, or buried if you don’t want to see the tubes, forever. It is not pressurized, so it won’t be freeze-damaged in winter.
Not watering the weeds saves a lot of water and keeps your vegetables healthier, too. While seed packet pictures often show the tomatoes or lettuce glistening with water droplets, dry produce is happy, disease-free produce. Don’t confuse a soaker hose with drip irrigation. It is not. A soaker puts water down in between the plants — both wasting water and watering weeds.
The internet is full of drip irrigation information. Go to my drip irrigation presentation at Recycle-weather.com, and go to EugeneWeekly.com for a short video that may help you start the time, money and water saving drip irrigation system of your dreams. Only the weeds and the water company will be disappointed when you switch over.
The Garden Palette is Kim Kelly, Cynthia Doak, John Fischer, Rachel Foster and Alby Thoumsin. Have a question for the writers? Gardening@EugeneWeekly.com.
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