soil

many people are asking "how much should I water?" but the main concern should be the soil. The type of soil you have dictates the amount of watering you should do. If your soil is 100% sand you won't be able to water enough. If your soil is clay, well you should dig it up...lol Clay does not give your soil the proper drainage. If you are using a bagged soil you won't have to water very much, because for the most part it is dense and hard for the water to drain fast enough. From my experience the best possible combination is about 50% sand (good fine sand) and 50% other. Your plants love water, but they hate to sit in it. You want the kind of soil that water just sits there for a bit, then drains through. If your plants sit in water the will get root rot and be susceptible to fungus disease. I think I've lost more plant from those two things. Don't have the right soil, that's ok, you can fix it! Compost is a great way to amend any type of soil. It can be as easy as turning your beds over. Meaning when the planting season is over you just till up everything, letting the vines and stems naturally decompose and become dirt again. (this is the method I used this year, mostly because we are new here, and I planted where it looked like a garden once was.) Another solution is top your soil with about 2" of compost and turn all that under. If you have clay, sadly you are going to have to dig up as much of that as possible and replace with your own special mixture, your plants will surly get root rot. So moral of the story... Let your soil decide how much you water.