Opinion: Hand watering is my preference - Potager Kitchen Gardens & Pottery

Let me just preface this by saying that I’m not averse to the idea of technology doing my gardening ‘work’ for me. It’s just that technology doesn’t always end up doing it just like I want it to. That’s probably why I don’t use online planting calendars either – although my garden would possibly be a whole lot more productive if I did. I like to go with the flow (excuse the pun!).

So, when someone recently asked me why I haven’t yet set up an irrigation system in my current kitchen garden I was prompted to consider why watering my home garden by hand is my preference. Here goes:

When I’m watering my plants, I am also checking on their progress, their challenges and their overall health. I find gaps to fill, and surprises amongst my plants, all the time. Those surprises range from finding volunteer plants and beneficial and not-so-beneficial bugs to discovering plants that I thought had died off, but clearly hadn’t. By peering at my plants as I water, I often pick up problems before they start – like the first signs of fungus, or the early evidence of an infestation of aphids. By hand watering I deal with potential problems a lot earlier than if I left the tech to do its thing.
I often have a pair of secateurs with me – and I’ll prune and tend as I go along. For sure it means there’s some juggling but I always rue the moment I spot something that needs doing and my secateurs are elsewhere. And often I’ll decide, while watering, to move a plant – there is no better way to do it than when one has water at hand. One might as well multi-task, right?
I find hand watering truly relaxing … it’s a quiet time in my day where I can focus on my garden and think creatively. I don’t consider it ‘work’.
Often plants don’t need water when the tech ‘thinks’ they do. And when they do need water, their requirements are not necessarily the same as the plants in the next row or bed. My Grandad Fred always said that more plants are killed by overwatering than underwatering. For sure, this is probably not an issue in most of the hot and dry regions of our country, but it’s something to factor in. Unless automated systems include high tech moisture readers, with mini weather stations attached, they simply don’t have the ‘feel’ that one needs when one is working with what is essentially a living organism.
Rain … I know this is something that eludes many parts of our lovely country often, but I keep a reasonable record of what’s been delivered to our ground, and when. When there’s rain there’s really no need to have an irrigation system working away unnecessarily. And if potable municipal water is being used at the same time … well, that’s just silly. (Refer point 6 below: wastage, and point 3 above: need.)
I love consciously using rain water. A rain water system isn’t cheap to set up (but then neither is irrigation, of course), but it’s so worthwhile to use unchlorinated rain water in one’s garden. I always have a regularly refreshed water butt nearby for soaking plants and seedlings, and topping up potted plants, washing hands and produce, and rinsing off seedling trays etc. (I’ll go into rain water harvesting in another story.)
Wastage. Once I lost a 5000 litre tank of rain water when a leak in the irrigation pipe wasn’t noticed until all the water was gone. Then there’s the loss when one of the little fittings on the irrigation jet falls off and water pours out in one place to the detriment of plants further along the line. The cost if that happened when on a municipal supply could break one’s gardening budget, and then some.
Aesthetics. I don’t like black pipes lying around. And then there’s practicality – I’m not the tidiest gardener, for sure, but I’m also pretty clumsy too. I’ve stabbed myself with secateurs more often that I’d like to admit and I will trip over pipes unless they are well-hidden below ground, at extra expense.
Weeding … a weed that would otherwise be difficult to budge may give way easily with a bit of water pressure as incentive. (And is more likely to be spotted in the first place while hand watering.)
I like the flexibility of being able to change my layout as I wish. My own home garden is a moveable feast … at present it’s mainly raised beds but, who knows what I’ll decide to do with it down the line and the last thing I want to have to worry about is having to move expensive piping, connectors and clips.
Drip or mist? In a group of gardeners, this will be a never ending debate about preferences. I like the ‘feel’ of mist irrigation – but then when the wind comes up it’s wasted and the pathways always end up being irrigated too. (This helps wayward plants and weeds which volunteer along the paths.) Combine mist and some heat and you’ve got a fine environment for fungal growth. And I don’t plant my plants in an orderly enough manner or pattern for drip irrigation.
At a push, on a warm day when time is limited, I’ll set up the spike and irrigate the good old-fashioned way. I always set a timer, though … and I keep an ear out for the swish-swish so that if the hose loses contact with the spike, I can quickly prevent water loss.
Cost. Yes, that. I love technology but pumps and timers can be tricky – especially if there’s load shedding.

Of course this is all moot when there are water restrictions with no-hose rules in place (if one doesn’t have a rain water supply). And if we go away for a break in summer I need to find someone to wet the soil for me while I’m gone. Usually this requires a full briefing session and pots and seed trays are moved into easy-to-access spaces. From time to time there will be a loss, or plants will have a set back, but so far, I’ve been happy to take my chances.

So, what is your preference?