How to Have a Garden While Working Fulltime
Make Watering Easy
Watering is one of the most time consuming chores of the garden. When you work full time, you don’t have lots of time to spare. So, why not take some shortcuts. Here are 6 things you can do to make watering much easier for the working person!
Shortcut #1
My first year gardening, I did a lot of hand watering. Granted, my garden was even smaller than it is now. But, after a year of lugging heavy water around, I invested in good soaker hoses!
This kind of hose is a must! There are relatively cheap and you can reuse them for 2-3-or more years, depending on how beat-up they get. These hoses are beneficial for several reasons. Aside from saving considerable time and back-breaking effort, very little water is wasted. The water is placed right at the base of the plants, where it will do the most good. It is also a good slow soak, so there is less chance of shocking your plants with a burst of water after dry spells. (Unless you don’t water often enough!)
Tomatoes love soaker hoses, since they help with even watering. Even watering, in turn, prevents tomatoes splitting. As it bottom waters, soil doesn’t splash up on the leaves, which is almost a guarantee of creating fungus problems. I love these hoses for another reason–shortcut # 2!
Shortcut #2
When working full time, time is of a premium. Multitasking is life saver! Once I have my soaker hoses in place, all I have to do is turn on the water, leaving me free to do other things.
I prefer watering in the morning. I think the morning is the best time for watering and that it helps the plants get through the hot days better than evening watering.
As soon as I get up in the morning, I’ll turn on my soaker hoses and set my designated garden timer. Then I place the timer beside me as I get ready for work, eat breakfast etc. When the timer goes off, I turn the water off too. I certainly don’t want to leave the water on for 8+ hours while I’m at work!
When it gets really hot and dry and I need to water in the evenings too, I use that time to get other garden tasks done or make supper–usually supper!
Shortcut #3
Splitters are also of great value in saving time (and water). I divide my garden into 3 main groups. I have soaker hoses just for the tomato field, so they have a separate watering system. But the raised bed is all on one soaker hose. It is divided by a splitter into 2 parts. The main part of the garden that will grow all season is one section. The potato portion of the garden, which is harvested earlier and remains empty until fall planting, is the other section.
I have these two groups of hoses divided by a splitter. This way, I can just flip a valve and stop watering the potato beds after they are harvested and save me some water. Splitters have another benefit as well! I can divide up the main part of the garden further. This way if one raised bed doesn’t need watering and another does, I don’t have to hand water the dry bed. I simply flip the valve and only water what I need too!
Shortcut #4
To maintain a garden while working full time it is helpful to water on a rotation. After I have my splitters and soaker hoses were I want them, I get on a watering rotation. This way I’m not watering my entire garden every day. Watering everything in one day eats up a large portion of time, time I don’t have during the work week. Instead, I water on a rotation. So something is being watered everyday, just not everything. Keep in mind, even if you have a schedule, the needs of the plants come first. If they don’t need water, don’t water. If they do and it’s “not the day” for them to be watered, water anyway. I don’t often have to break the schedule. But the weather can change my plans if it’s rainy, or scorching hot and dry!
My tomatoes usually get watered every other day. The raised beds with the potatoes, might need watered every day and the rest, every other day. Once I get the tomatoes and the main raised beds on the opposite schedule, I have no trouble getting the watering done BEFORE work!
Shortcut #5
As we are well aware, hot summer days can burn up a garden even with daily watering, especially if those plants are in containers on a patio. There have been so many times I’ve been at work and as I look out through the window I think, “This heat is killing my plants. I wish I could go home and water.” But I can’t leave work and watering plants in the heat of day with cold water can shock them. So what to do?? Water bottle reservoirs! These don’t take the place of watering, but are more of a stopgap to get the plants through the heat of the day.
Just save your plastic water bottles. Cut the bottom off and screw the lid back on. Then punch some holes in the lid. Bury it, lid side down, so that about 2 or so inches of the bottle are above the soil. Then fill with water. The water slowly drips out keeping the soil moist and your plants happy.
Plus, this water has been outdoors all day so there’s no chance of it shocking the plant! I only ever had slime build up in some reservoirs, usually due to a clog. Just clean the reservoir and rebury. You could even try using 2 liter bottles for the main garden! See Garden Experiments 2020 for full instructions.
Shortcut #6
No matter how many soaker hoses you have, there will always be a need for some hand watering. To enjoy those patio plants while working full time, keep hand watering to a minimum!
Limit the number of plants which need hand watering! I try to keep the only hand watering I do limited to the plants on the patio.
To save time and make sure I give these plants the best chance to get through the hot days, I like to combine hand watering with my multitasking step and get it done in the morning!
