Thank you for your question. The garden is hand watered to be able to control individual plant needs and to promote conservation of water by not overwatering. Because we rotate crops constantly, we find hand watering gives us more precise control. We also use ample aged compost from the garden to mulch around plants as well as planting plants together more closely so as to shade the ground and limit evaporation.

Do you till it in the spring or how do you get it ready to plant?

How wide are garden beds themselves? And how much did the brick cost you?

I hope you'll all forgive a small, uninvited tip: native soil is great IF its great. Horse manure can be full of weed seeds and very "hot" (look it up). Some places don't freeze hard enough to heave the ground (obviously not an issue in Chi-town). Homemade compost is often full of seeds, too. I wouldn't be afraid to bring in quality 3-way soil to a project like this to save yourself the aforementioned potentials and to ensure such an awesome design actually produces.

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I'm in love with this garden and intend to use it as a template for the garden in our new home. It's unique and we'll thought out. Congratulations on your beautiful project.