Techniques

Watering in a Makkelijke Moestuin

Everything about watering, with and without water reservoirs. And did you know that MM-Mix helps you use 80 to 95% less water than in a traditional vegetable garden?

use a little deli container to water seedlings — *Tip: A little deli container is perfect for watering*

Watering is very important in a vegetable garden. Plants take in some of their nutrients through water.

Plants themselves are also made up of roughly 90% water. If they do not get enough, they wilt, stop growing and eventually die.

Only 20% of the water – or even less

In a Makkelijke Moestuin, you use up to 95% less water than in a traditional vegetable garden. That is because you water where it is needed: at the roots of the plant.

You can do this with MM water reservoirs, which now come as standard with our garden boxes – bringing water use down to just 5% – or without them. Even without reservoirs, you still save 80%.

And because you use either Makkelijke Moestuingrond with cocopeat or classic MM-Mix, the water stays where you put it. The fibres in both growing media retain moisture well.

Wasting water by hosing down a garden: watering a vegetable garden is not efficient — *Where's all that water going?*

That is very different from the photo above. There, the water lands on the leaves, can run off, and the soil around the plants is watered too. What a waste.

Watering with MM water reservoirs

Watering with MM water reservoirs is very simple. Fill the reservoirs through the tubes until water starts flowing out of the holes in the sides. The reservoirs then contain 15 litres of water.

Zit een waterreservoir vol, dan loopt het teveel aan de zijkant weg. — *Zit een reservoir vol, dan loopt het teveel aan de zijkant weg.*

When filling the reservoirs for the first time, make sure the growing medium in the box is thoroughly moist from top to bottom.

This is especially important when using classic MM-Mix. Dry MM-Mix hardly draws any water up from the reservoirs. Makkelijke Moestuingrond with cocopeat does this very well.

If you start with moist growing medium, you will usually only need to top up the water once every two weeks during dry, warm weather.

You can tell whether there is still water inside by looking down one of the tubes.

*Checken of er nog water in het reservoir zit*

If you find it difficult to judge, add some more water through the tube until the reservoir overflows again.

If there is an occasional heavy shower, you will hardly need to top it up. When more rain falls than the growing medium can absorb, the excess also refills the reservoir.

If too much water enters – during prolonged rainfall, for example – it automatically drains through the holes in the sides of the box.

Watering during and after sowing

If your garden box has a water reservoir and there is hardly any rain, the top layer is usually a little drier than the growing medium below.

That is intentional: it helps your plants grow better and makes them less susceptible to fungi and pests.

You should still water from above when sowing and during the first week afterwards.

This is how I do it:

first I thoroughly wet the top layer of the square
then I make shallow holes with my finger and place the seeds in them
I close the holes and add a little more water
finally, I place the plant label in the square

Zaaien in bakken met een Makkelijke Moestuin waterreservoir — *Water geven, zaden in ondiepe gaatjes en die dichtmaken, nog wat water en naamlabel*

Because seedlings have very small roots at first, they cannot yet reach the moist growing medium below. During the first week, give seedlings some additional water from above using a small container or watering can.

An extra check during summer

During prolonged periods of drought, sunshine, heat or strong wind, the growing medium can still dry out from above. This is especially true once climbing summer vegetables become large: they drink a lot.

During summer, check at least once every two weeks whether the growing medium is still moist further down. If not, thoroughly moisten it again by watering from above.

(This works best in stages: add plenty of water, wait for it to soak in, and repeat several times until the growing medium is moist throughout. You will find some additional guidance near the bottom of this page.)

*Check de mix: bovenop droog en daaronder vochtig? Perfect! (foto Silvia)*

During extremely heavy rain – or heat and bright sunshine

During prolonged rain, excess water seeps into the reservoir and drains through the holes in the sides. The growing medium remains in good condition and you do not need to do anything.

Bright sunshine, heat and dry wind can be a problem for young plants or plants with soft leaves, such as lettuce, as their leaves may wilt quickly. This is not caused by dry growing medium, but by the combination of hot, dry air and intense sunlight.

Help vulnerable plants by providing shade and wetting the top layer of the growing medium to make the surrounding air slightly more humid. Take extra care not to pour water onto the leaves.

*Felle zon en hoge temperaturen? Geef wat extra schaduw op het heetst van de dag.*

Alles over de MM-waterreservoirs

Watering without MM water reservoirs

If your garden box does not have MM water reservoirs, it is just as important to start with a thoroughly moist growing medium and never let it dry out completely. Once dry, it absorbs water much less easily.

You therefore sow in exactly the same way as you would with water reservoirs.

If you have one to four garden boxes, water your plants using a small container.

A bucket and container for watering — *A bucket and plastic container for watering*

Place one or more buckets filled with water next to your garden boxes. Rainwater is ideal, so use it if you have a rain barrel.

The sun warms the water in the buckets. Your plants – especially seedlings – appreciate this, as they do not like ice-cold water.

Use a small container to water at the base of the plants. I use empty butter tubs or similar containers. Because MM-Mix contains plenty of fibres, it holds the water where you pour it.

You can see this clearly in the photo below: the top layer around the seedlings is moist, while the rest is dry.

The MM-Mix keeps moisture right where you want it: at the roots of your plants — *The MM-Mix keeps moisture right where you want it*

"I found it hard to believe that you really use less water with MM-Mix. But over the past few days, I genuinely noticed the difference between MM-Mix and other soil!

The plants without MM-Mix started drooping halfway through the afternoon – herbs and strawberry plants – while those in the garden boxes, Plantys and pots with MM-Mix were still standing perfectly upright. You could even see that the growing medium was still slightly moist despite the full sun.

I have no idea how you manage it, but I'm extremely happy with it!"

Skunkeler in the Community

Lots of garden boxes? Use a hose

If, like us, you have lots of garden boxes, watering with buckets and small containers is a huge job. A garden hose is more practical. Even then, apply the water directly to the growing medium and keep the plants themselves as dry as possible.

(That is why, with larger plants, I sometimes pushed the hose into the growing medium and let the water run for a while.)

*Watering straight into the soil with a hose*

Watch out for hot water from the hose

Take care in sunny, warm weather: water left standing in a hose can become extremely hot in the sun. Before you know it, you can seriously damage your beloved plants. I speak from experience 😉

Let the water run for a while first and check its temperature before directing it at your plants.

The summer sun will heat up the water in your hose until it is too hot to pour on your garden — *The summer sun will heat up the water in your hose*

Dried-out Makkelijke Moestuin growing medium

If you do not water for a long time and it does not rain, the growing medium will eventually dry out completely.

This rarely happens in boxes with MM water reservoirs, but before we had those, it did. We would come home from holiday to find the boxes bone dry.

That was a shame for the vegetables growing in them, but otherwise it was no disaster. We removed the plants, added some fresh plant food, loosened and mixed everything until it was airy again, and watered thoroughly.

How do you make dried-out growing medium thoroughly moist again?

With Makkelijke Moestuingrond containing cocopeat, it is simple. Add water and it absorbs it straight away.

With classic MM-Mix, it takes a little longer. Work in stages:

first loosen all the growing medium
then add plenty of water, until it looks soaking wet
wait for the water to be absorbed and check whether it is moist beneath the top layer
if not, loosen the top layer again, add plenty of water, wait and check once more
repeat until the growing medium near the bottom of the box is reasonably moist too

Kurkdroge Makkelijke Moestuinmix weer vochtig maken — *Kurkdroog, kletsnat, nog steeds droog, maar na nog een paar rondes door en door vochtig.*

This gives the growing medium time to absorb the water without becoming too wet. That matters because plants also breathe through their roots, so constantly standing in soaking-wet growing medium is not ideal.

Keep checking as you go. Sometimes it appears completely moist while the bottom layer is still dry. The growing medium absorbs more water than you might think 🙂

Once it is moist again, you can sow and plant and return to watering normally, as indicated by the app.

If you only want to sow or plant in one particular spot, loosen and aerate the growing medium there all the way to the bottom. Make several small hollows in each square and fill them with plenty of water several times, until the growing medium is moist right down to the bottom.

That's it

That was quite a story, but now you know exactly how to water a Makkelijke Moestuin.

With water reservoirs, you need to water far less often, especially during periods with little or no rain. If you keep the growing medium in boxes without reservoirs properly moist, watering those is not much work either.

Either way, you use far less water than in a traditional vegetable garden. That's a good thing, isn't it?

PS: Would you also like to use Makkelijke Moestuingrond or MM-Mix?

You can buy them from one of our stockists or order them from our online shop.

Head to the shop