(It is especially important for newly planted trees and shrubs to be watered their first season.)įirst, estimate the surface area - in bird’s-eye view - over which the roots spread.

If you’re watering with a bucket or watering can, use the 1-inch measure to determine the amount needed for an individual plant. On a garden of 150 square feet, an inch of water is equivalent to 90 gallons. To cover an acre with water 1 inch deep requires about 27,000 gallons. Then turn on the spigot, and keep it on until the sprinklers have filled the cans with water 1 inch deep. Because the distribution of the water might not be uniform, set out a few cans at random over the area to be watered. It’s easily measured with a rain gauge, which you can either buy or make at home out of nothing more than a coffee or some other can, and a ruler.īecause I am the one with the rain gauge, my neighbor usually calls across the fence the morning after a night shower, “How many inches did we get?”Ī rain gauge can tell you how long to use your sprinkler to put that inch of water onto the garden. As a general rule, plants need about 1 inch of water per week to really thrive. The amount of rain that fell, how long to water your plants, or how much water plants need is often spoken of in terms of inches. A cloudburst might seem to have thoroughly saturated the ground, but scratch down an inch and you might find bone-dry soil.īecause watering - not too much and not too little - is one of the keys to a successful garden, it pays to be more analytical about that cloudburst. In my experience, gardeners often overestimate rainfall. Business & Finance Click to expand menu.

Cloudburst irrigation