5 Beginner Raised Bed Garden WATERING MISTAKES to Avoid

Thank you for this video. I have had to learn this. I always seemed to overwater everything so I was surprised to find out that I was underwatering my raised beds. My beds are 2 feet deep and so have excellent drainage. My plants were not growing and were yellow. I learned that underwatering can also cause your plants to be yellow. One trick I learned is to plant sweet alyssum in my beds to act as a kind of canary in the coal mine. If the sweet alyssum is not blooming then I’m underwatering. The added bonus is that hover flies love the sweet alyssum and they eat any aphids that are on my plants. It’s a win-win.

I have a drip irrigation system for my raised bed tomato garden. The recommendation to place lines under the mulch made sense for soaker hose, but I don’t do that for my drip tips for a few reasons. First, having the spaghetti lines above the mulch allows me to move them around and adjust flow as needed. Second, I can visually inspect if there is a problem, such as a clogged or damaged tip or a leak, which you could not do if they were shielded from view. And lastly, buried emitters will tend to get clogged by debris or algae. So I guess this recommendation was in the context of soaker irrigation. Yes, UV and solar radiation will shorten the lifespan of an exposed system, but I think the tradeoff is worth it.

Honestly, the English garden just looks stunning!!!! Just beautiful! You are a one of a kind garden artist!!!!

So we live in northern Colorado where it gets very hot and dry most summers and I garden in stock tanks up in the foothills. Have dealt with hydrophobic soil and it is terrible. We have been trying to get automatic watering going, but have had problems. So how I water now is to hand water, but with the soaker setting on the nozzle held under the plant so a lot of water is delivered without being wasted. I also mulch and interplant, so not a lot of open space in the beds. It is tedious, but like weeding, I find it to be relaxing and gives me a chance to really look closely at all my plants every few days. I also use a water meter now to see how deep the water is going - before, my finger told me it was ok, but a few more inches down, it was totally dry. We have a new plan for the soaker hoses, so we shall see what happens this year. Fingers crossed.

Your thumbnail soaker hose grid was actually the BEST thing I have ever done in my vegetable garden. Changed my gardening outcomes and made my production 4 times better

I regularly recommend your videos to my gardening group. A fount of info, and just a nice place to visit!

Love the house with the thatched roof!

Thanks, Brian. The over/under watering problem was going through my head this morning. You alleviated some of my concerns. I think I'm doing alright.

Thanks again for the refresher, Brian. I always learn something new👍🏻

Long time gardener here, and I basically already knew all the stuff you're talking about in this video. I knew I would before I even clicked on it. (Don't ya just hate it when people say stuff like that!!) I promise, that all the above is not meant as a know-it-all-snarky thing to say! Bcuz - The reason I clicked, and KEPT watching, was bcuz I just wanted to soak in (ha! SOAK IN!! 👀! See what I did there!!) all those gorgeous fox gloves you've got going on!! I knew they'd be there!!! Standing there so tall... Waving their pretty Bells around! You (and they) did NOT disappoint!!! JUST GORGEOUS BRIAN!!! BRAVO! 👏👏👏👏👏👏

Rất vui được nghe bạn chia sẻ kinh nghiệm làm vườn với mọi người 👍.

Great advice especially for container gardening with the watering!

Thank you Brian, as always great information! 💐💚🙃

Another eye openning video. Thanks Brian. After watching I went out to plant spinach and lettuce in some round containers and even after two days of on and off rain, the soil was completely dry except for about an inch on top. I used your suggestion to remedy this and hopefully will be able to plant soon. ( still is in the 20s at night and 40-50s during the day.

Your garden is fabulous. Thanks for sharing 👍

Thanks so much Bro! ❤️🙏❤️ Great advice! What a beautiful property!

Thank you. I do have this problem with new soil . And of course I’ve already planted. I did get the bedding straw and need to get out and put it down.

Incredible gardens! For 25 years I have been adding food scraps to my soil (I'm a cook) and all 5 gardens are full of worms. I use wood chips from a local tree firm. We're in Nashville - the 5th rainiest city in the nation. Last year I used irrigation 9 days. The past few weeks it's rained at least 4 days / week. I plant on a good day (mid 80s), it rains the next day and plants explode. I use raised beds for 1) ease of working and 2) controlling weeds and soil. My biggest watering problem involves seedlings but I'm learning (thanks to you).

Great video, thanks for sharing and take care 😊

Side note. I love those Foxgloves. Tallest I ever seen. Admits I got a bit sidetracked admiring them and had to relisten to the end. Beautiful garden you have.