Irrigation

There is a lot of difference in watering your garden with fresh rain, or irrigating it during dry periods. It is scientifically considered that irrigation is an artificial method of watering soil, regardless whether it is a huge field of corn or beans, or a small garden in the back yard. Crops or gardens that rely only on rain are called "dry land farming" which occurs when no water is available for irrigating or watering through other methods.

There are two different types of irrigation: the furrow type and the sprinkler type. If money is an issue the furrow type is the best and most economical. Unfortunately, only plants grown on a flat surface with less than a 2% slope would benefit from it. The sprinkler irrigation are simple to run and maintain, with the ability to set it for autopilot or in a small garden plot can be ran personally.

But either way, the general rule of thumb is one inch to an inch-an-a-half per week for each plant. If an abundance of rain is available, then this rule is an easy goal to reach with no sweat or worry, but in dry times or drier climates, mulching is additional option to keep moisture in the soil for longer periods. But next to weeding, the art of watering the garden is almost as time consuming—a 10 by 10 foot garden requires approximately 60 gallons weekly of water. Choosing a garden in dry climates would require plants or crops that require very little water. Choosing a garden plants in moisture filled locations would require plants that need lots of moisture. If you plant a moisture-required plant in a dry area, lots of irritation would be required to keep it healthy and growing at its potential.

Irrigation has been around a long time but dry land farming has been around even longer. When irrigation became available to farmers and eventually gardeners, there were several advantages:

• Crops would increase


• The quality would improve


• Aflatoxin was reduced


• Plant reliability was improved


• Plant risk was reduced


• Profitability was not only improved, but increased

An interesting perspective on irrigation is with the Hopis' gardens, the Native Americans of northern Arizona. One would assume due to their location that dry land farming would be all they did, but they also have irrigated gardens, even living in an area with about 250 mm of annual moisture, drying winds, and short growing seasons of 120 to 160 days. Water is not a luxury in this area due tot heir topographical and geological elements of their lands have caused extreme measures to be taken for irrigation methods. They use runoff water from the summer rains, or use stored water in the soil from winter precipitation, such as snow and northern falling rain that becomes trapped in the shale, following a southern path until it reaches the Hopi lands, the Mesas. Once it arrives, it forms a large, concentrated body of water to form a spring for both drinking water and agriculature.