Just moved into a place with a backyard and I’m realizing I have no idea what I’m doing lol.
There’s a small lawn, a flower bed by the fence, and I’m trying to start a little veggie bed with tomatoes + herbs. The annoying part is they all seem to need water at different times. The lawn gets dry fast, but the veggie bed still feels damp after rain.
I’m thinking about setting up 2 watering zones for now — one for the lawn and one for the garden beds — but idk if that’s too simple. Do you guys usually separate flowers and veggies, or just run them together?
Also, for anyone using soil sensors: are they actually helpful day to day, or do you mostly just set a schedule and leave it?
Trying to get this figured out before it gets too hot. Any setup tips or “don’t make this mistake” advice would be appreciated.
I’d at least split it into 2 zones: one for the lawn and one for the beds. That’s not too simple at all — it’s the right starting point.
The lawn usually wants deeper, less frequent watering with sprinklers, while tomatoes/herbs do better with drip irrigation and more targeted moisture at the root zone. If your veggie bed is still damp after rain, that’s a good sign it should not be on the same schedule as the lawn.
For flowers vs. veggies, I’d group them by water needs, not by plant type. Tomatoes and thirsty herbs like basil can usually run together, but rosemary, thyme, oregano, lavender, etc. usually want a drier schedule, so they’re better separated if possible.
Soil sensors can be helpful, especially the first season, but I wouldn’t rely on them alone. They’re best for checking whether to skip a cycle or adjust timing, not for blindly automating everything.
Biggest mistakes to avoid:
putting sprinklers and drip on the same zone
watering a little every day
keeping tomatoes too wet or swinging from dry to soaked
If you want the simplest solid setup:
Zone 1 = lawn
Zone 2 = veggie/flower beds on drip
Then fine-tune within the bed zone with different emitters or small valves.
