It's Time to Stop Watering Your Garden This Fall

Put the watering can down: It’s the end of the season and all that watering you’ve been doing is now just habit. Even before the rain starts, it’s time to wean yourself off the hose.

Watering is like religion for gardeners. Some people love the time spent walking around, hand watering from a hose. Others like the routine assuredness of sprinklers going off every day, same time, same duration. Regardless, we all want to make sure our sweet baby plants are taken care of—and you did great.

Temps are down, humidity is returning

The thing is, plants don’t need everyday watering because they need a shower like humans; whether or not they need water depends on the moisture in the soil. During the hottest parts of the year, it tends to be dry out. Even with proper mulching (and the correct amount is a lot), roots can dry out, so watering at the base is important. But with fall around the corner, even the hottest areas are turning the corner. Your temps may still be in the 80s, but if they’ve dropped, your plants aren’t under as much stress. Watering everyday likely isn’t necessary, and you should start spacing out the splishy-splashy time for your plant babes. Around this time of year, I go down to once a week for a nice, thorough soak, but no more. Obviously, you want to check the soil moisture a few inches down to check in and see if it feels cool and moist. If so, your plants are still in the green zone, no need for water. If you have a smart watering system, it is likely accounting for this.

While potted plants retain less moisture because they’re in a pot (and a lot of them are in terra cotta which actually pulls moisture out of the soil), they, too, need less water, albeit slightly more than your ground plants. Check in the same way by using your finger to test the moisture of the soil. When you need to water them, I recommend you use the drenching method.

Your nightshades will ripen faster with less water

Tomatoes, peppers and eggplants actually benefit from being thirsty this time of year. We want to ripen every damn tomato on the vine, and a good trick is to cut off the water, which I did last week. The occasional rain this time of year should be enough for these plants unless they really look like they’re struggling, and then you want to water at the base, but not soak them.

Now, to be clear, you’re stressing the plant out by cutting off water. That is why they ripen. If you feel for your plants, this can also be stressful for you, but a ripe slicer will soothe your pain.

Your annuals and most of your vegetables are the walking dead

We baby our plants until the very end, but the reality is, time is nigh. It’s fall. These annual flowers and vegetables can’t survive when night temps dive under 40F for days at a time. So cutting back, saving some water and coins, isn’t cruel. These plants have what they need at this point to make it through to the end.

Your better bet is to be ruthless in cutting out the plants that are spent. If they’re not producing, you’re wasting room. Clean them out and plant something for fall instead. Remember, some fruit can come inside to ripen, or you can bring the whole plant inside, with a little work.

The exceptions to this not-watering advice 

If you are seeding grass (and now’s the time), those sprinklers need to stay on. Seeds that are germinating need consistent moisture to do so. Which means that whatever you’e sowing outside—such as carrots, beets, onions, or radishes—need water, too. Your baby fall seedlings, if they’ve gone in, also need enough water to have their soil consistently moist.

I always loved hand watering. It was a space of time during the day I could walk around, see every detail of my garden, talk to the plants, the birds, the squirrels and the way my blood pressure went down, which meant I could skip yoga. The thing is, you don’t have to actually water to get the same meditative effect. So, head outside tomorrow morning, tell the crows what’s what, but leave the sprinklers off.