In hopes of making watering a bit easier, we have created this watering guide, including a handy step-by-step guide to watering the garden.

A few things to note

• Our 2016 hydrant permit (pdf)
• Orange duct-taped items are for connecting directly to the hydrant
• Green duct-taped items are for connecting to the splitter, which enables more than one hose to be used at the same time.
• Blue duct-taped items are for connecting hoses/watering tools inside the garden. Anything taped blue will work with anything else taped blue.
• The hoses that connect into the splitter, as well as the spray nozzle, have quick release connectors. To open the quick release, push the lower ring toward the top ring on the attachment that has two rubberized rings.
• If a hose is leaking, grab the duct tape and patch away. We hope to make it to the end of the season with our current batch of hoses and want to avoid flooding our neighbors.

Rules of (a green) thumb when watering

• Water plants at the base of the plant, not on top of the leaves. Some plants, such as squash, will negatively react to top watering unless the sun dries the water off very quickly.
• The beds should be watered so that the soil is moist up to your second knuckle. Check each bed in a few places. Any bed that is dry anywhere up to your second knuckle needs to be watered. If the bed is moist up to your knuckle, it doesn’t need to be watered.
• Use the “garden spray” setting on the nozzle.
• Try not to allow pools of water to develop in the soil as small seedlings can drown.
• At this time, the drip irrigation barrels are only going to be used on days when a watering shift needs to be covered or during times when the garden will be occupied for several hours. Given that it takes several hours for the barrels to water the beds, it is impractical for most members to use the barrels during a weekday watering shift.

How to water, step by step

1. Lay down hose guards. Use the luggage cart to make transporting the hose guards a bit easier.
2. Take hose cart with industrial strength street hoses to hydrant. It is personal preference as to whether you unroll the hose as you move toward the hydrant or whether you unroll the street hoses from the cart once you get to the hydrant.
3. At the hydrant, attach brass connector and then screw on the hose that is attached to the hose cart. Please do not leave the brass connector attached to the hose, as screwing on both together twists the hose and creates leaks.
4. Attach the end of the street hose to the splitter, which is attached to the fence.
5. Attach the interior garden hoses to splitter. If the interior hoses aren’t connected when you turn on the hydrant, make sure each of the junctions on the splitter is in the off position.
6. Use the hydrant key—large silver wrench—to open the hydrant.
7. Use one of the interior hoses for the sprinkler to water the grass, strawberry patch (including the little tree in the far corner) and butterfly/wildflower garden.
8. Use the other interior hose to water the hay bales, the rainbow cans on the fence, each bed that needs watering, and to fill the self-watering bed in the greenhouse if it is being used.
9. Check the watering barrels and the hand-washing station barrel (which is coming soon) to make sure that each barrel is filled and that the barrels are covered with the mosquito netting tops. If the barrels are left uncovered, mosquitos will breed like crazy in the barrels.
10. Close off hydrant, wind the outdoor hoses onto the hose cart, and put hose guards inside gate. The interior garden hoses should be hung separately on the hose boxes attached to the composter near the front gate.

Thank you for being part of South Brooklyn Children’s Garden!