irrigation

Garden Watering Calculator: How Much Water Does Your Garden Really Need?

Garden Watering Calculator: How Much Water Does Your Garden Really Need? Most vegetable gardens need 1 to 1.5 inches of water per week, which equals 0.623 gallons per square foot per inch of depth. A 200-square-foot garden at 1 inch per week requires roughly 125 gallons weekly, but the actual amount depends on your soil type, irrigation method efficiency, local rainfall, and evapotranspiration rate. I tracked water usage across three garden plots totaling 480 square feet over two full growing seasons in Zone 6b. Switching from overhead sprinklers to drip irrigation cut my water bill from $38/month to $14/month during peak summer, a 63% reduction. The $55 drip kit paid for itself in six weeks. More importantly, my tomato plants stopped developing the fungal leaf spots that plagued every sprinkler-watered season before. The soil doesn't lie -- when you measure moisture at 4-inch depth with a $12 probe, you see...