I water every 3 days until July, then increase to every 2 days after that. My location is Northwest Alabama

Mel's mix holds moisture far better than dirt, but everything dries out in time. To test though, dig down an inch or two and check for moisture.

That said, you may need to water even more than EG suggests in your NM summers. Such is life is an arid desert. Mulch can help though.

Good luck.

Yup. The mix does dry out quite fast in dry weather--even faster with wind.

To boot, once things dry out the mix becomes hydrophobic--meaning it tends to shed water rather than absorb it.

Once the heat gets extreme here in Omaha I usually water about every other day. I have a small irrigation system going to the raised beds. I started with drip tape--three lines for a four-foot wide bed, but this was not sufficient, especially if smaller, recently transplanted seedlings are present with undeveloped root systems. So now I use a few lines of hose that send out a mist, which does a better job of wetting down the mix. I also have one spot mister on a stake per bed. The spot mister is on a fairly long mini tube, so when I transplant something I stick the mister next to it so that it will directly water the little plants in every time I water the beds. Saves me a lot of plants and trouble during the summer heat!

I water every day-twice a day in the heat of summer. It can dry out. Some people think that just because the garden is reduced by 80%, so is the water, which is not the case at all. You still need to water your garden as you would a normal garden so it wont dry out. You end up using 80% less water because you are watering less garden area than you normally would. You should try sinfo's trick o testing the soil. You will see that you can dry out fast-the only drawback of this soil.

Thank you everybody. I will probably try mulching with hay (I might see if the neighbors have some extra). The wind is probably one of my biggest factors. Some day I hope to get everything on drip but I need to determine the permanent location first.

Here in south central Kansas we can have some really hot dry summers also. As I was mixing my Mel's mix I added water polymers to mix to help it retain water like I do in my containers and window boxes. I found that it really helps to keep the soil moist.

Also after spending 'the big bucks' on Mel's mix for my 12 inch deep beds, I decided to invest a little more and added drip and/or soaker irrigation systems to each bed. All are connect to a main timer so I don't have to worry about watering when I'm away or at work. Right now though we are getting enough spring rain to satisfy my watering needs. Once we had a week with no rain and I only had to water once. The polymers seem to be doing their job.

Happy Trails,
Stacey