Watering the Vegetable Garden

by Virginia Baer Those of us living in Colorado should be fully aware of Colorado Water Law as it applies to domestic water rights and crop irrigation. Those gardeners who are fortunate enough to live in a municipality that supplies their water do not feel the restriction of water use nearly as strongly as those who receive their water by way of a residential well. Further, those with residential wells that were in place before 1972 do not feel the restrictions in place as those who have wells drilled after 1972 where outside irrigation is prohibited. (But do note that even those with household-use only wells are allowed to collect up to 110 gallons of rainwater from a residential roof). Water restrictions or not, as gardeners we should all be aware of the importance of being conservative with our water use. This is especially important in 2018 where over half of our state is experiencing drought anywhere from moderate to extreme. If you have healthy, well amended soil you have a good