All plants need water to live and grow. Water helps plants to stand up tall. It helps plants move nutrients through the stems and leaves and helps to keep the plant cool. Some plants need more water than others do. For the kind of plants you will be growing in your garden, you can almost be certain that you will need to add water.
Most gardens like to have about one inch of rain every week. Some weeks you may get a lot more than one inch and some weeks you get way less. For the weeks when it is dry, you will need to water your garden. Also, keep in mind that clay soils dry out slower, needing less frequent watering than sandy soils that dry out fast and need to be watered more often.
To find out how much rain your garden gets in a week, make a rain gauge. Take a clean soup can with the top cut off. Put the can out in the middle of your garden. After each rain or watering, use a ruler to measure how deep the water is in the can. If the water you measure adds up to one inch or more for the week, your garden is okay. If not, you'll need to water to make up the difference. Record the amount of rain each week in your journal.
There are a number of things to use to water the garden. A hand sprinkler is good, but you need to stand by the garden for a while in order to do a good job. If you get bored or impatient you may not do a good job.
Lawn sprinklers or soaker hoses are great, because they add water to the garden very slowly for a nice, deep soaking. And best of all, you can set the sprinkler and go have a lemonade while the garden gets watered.
Here's a fun gardening water trick.
Start with a clean, 2-liter plastic bottle.