Fixed watering routines, such as watering every two days or every day at the end of the afternoon, can work for weeks but, suddenly, on a day that appears identical to the others, the plants appear wilted in the middle of the afternoon. What changes is not temperature alone, but rather the combination of factors that determines how much water the garden loses per day.
Water leaves the garden through two paths simultaneously: it evaporates directly from the soil surface and exits through plant leaves in a process that is part of the plant's normal functioning. Evapotranspiration is the sum of these two water losses.
Wind is described as the most underestimated part of this equation, being responsible for significantly accelerating water loss that is not accounted for in traditional watering routines.
Straw mulching on a garden bed is presented as the simplest way to stop direct soil evaporation, helping to reduce water losses and keep the garden more hydrated during the most challenging days.
