Test, and when you think its right, test again.

OMG I have been so sick with some virus/flue that I caught out on Sydney Harbour.  Well, probably my fault as I did go out in the rain and wind on the Manly Ferry just to take photos of the tall ships coming into the harbour - see below, that is the crew on the masts!   It was all part of the Naval Review in Sydney.   Trouble was, it was a sunny day when we left home and the weather deteriorated badly, by the time we got to Manly it was terrible.

 



Anyway, I am on the mend now after a trip to the doctor and several drugs later, so we headed off to Bunnings to buy some seeds etc.  While I was sick, the best husband and son in the world shovelled all the soil into the beds for me, and it has had a couple of weeks to settle in.  Don't fill a bed like this to the top, as you need some room for water and mulch.



I decided a soaker hose is the easiest way to water the garden, and bought 2 that are 6 metres long, I put the first one in....



And turned on the hose to test,  way too much hose  and  water for the area!  (This is why you test), so one hose will do two boxes nicely.  I will tie down the hose with some metal ties that I use for tying up the tomatoes to stakes.  These are pink plastic coated ties, similar to what is used to tie the end of plastic bags etc, but much longer.

Even with the hose on very low, this will only need about 20 minutes per day to water the plants well.  The way to tell is to test, put the hose on for 5 minutes, see how far down it has penetrated.  Then try another 5 etc.  once the water has penetrated 8-10 cm down, you know how much to water each day.

Tomorrow the planting starts.

 

Gardening requires lots of water -

most of it in the form of perspiration. 

~Lou Erickson

 

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