"brooklyn1" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 22 Feb 2010 07:51:53 -0800, "Lelandite" wrote:


I think a decent rain gauge would be a very useful gardening tool. I
plan to put one right where my irrigation system (soaker hoses) begin.
With the rain gauge, I can keep a log of the rain we get each week and
determine how long to water my vegetables using the soaker hoses. I'd
like to see my garden have between 1" to 1 1/2" of water a week. I not
a very experienced gardener but I want to try and do it the right way.
I been putting a lot of money into equipment and doing all the research
I can on every aspect of home vegetable gardening. My neighbors on
both
sides of my property also have vegetable gardens BUT they are unwilling
to invest hardly any money or time in their gardens. It sure does have
a negative effect on the crops they grow! I had the one neighbor
coming
over to my house last summer asking if he could buy a few tomatoes from
me. He put out a dozen tomato plants of his own for just him and his
wife. I said: NO, you can't buy any but just help yourself to all
you
want! I'm a very firm believer that you only get out of anything in
life what your willing to invest in it. If your going to have a
garden,
then invest time and money in it and do it the right way. I'm in this
fine discuss group because I'm quite new to gardening but I want to
learn from others and enjoy getting their opinions on all aspects of
gardening Thanks for sharing your experience with soaker hoses.

Happy Gardening............ Rich

I like this a lot.
\
Bill

Garden in shade zone 5 S Jersey USA


I truly liked this post as well and am now going to purchase a
good rain gauge. The lay out of my yard/gardens requires
sprinklers. In the past I have tried to visually decide how much
was enough. With a gauge, I'll know exactly how much water
my yard n flower n berry beds are gettting.

Automatic sprinklers are on a timer (a timer is what makes them
automatic), don't need any stinkin' rain gauge...

Rain gauges aren't only used for figuring out how often to water a garden.
In fact I'd say that I've never known any gardner round here who uses their
rrain gauge in determing how often they water their garden beds.

We use a rain guage to record rainfall so that we have accurate annual
records for if/when we sell our farms. Buyers ask for that sort of
information because it determines grazing. Additionally we also like to
know how we're going in terms of rainfall by seasons and to compare it to
long term averages. I think there is more benefit in knowing if you've had
a dry or wet some over time so that you can figure out why particular crops
did well or not so well.

Artifical watering is also not the equivalent of rainfall in terms of
production so knowing what fell from the sky as opposed to knowing what came
from a tap is also part of that do well/rotten yield scenario.