Ummm, 6 million soaker hoses like you!

The rain that God forgot to turn off ! Haha but seriously a hose that is 200 feet long . I drag it back and forth because my dh hates if I leave it on the grass and it kills the grass . Why I'm not sure . ;)

Rain.

If you tell us what desert you reside in, we can probably come up with more helpful answers. Do you need something that can be put away during the winter? Is watering a season long necessity?

For some perspective, last year I finally got out the fancy pants Gardenia sprinkler that I picked up at a garage sale many years ago, but had never used. Boy was it cool! I used to set up sprinklers every summer for the kids to run through. Of course I am partially cheating by putting things that like a lot of water in the swamp.

We have about 2 rain days in a week, and I hand water newly planted roses and potted ones only. It's not bad.

Ok y'all are not helping lol, you're suppose to say that there is a particular type of fairy that comes out of the woods to water the garden at night, and then your suppose to tell me what to feed them to keep them Happy ;) lol.

Mad, I am in 9b in south east Texas, so unfortunately I'm looking at 100plus days coming up soon. I'll have to water everyday or every other day I'm sure. I'm not complaing though, because I freeze in anything below 75!

If possible, get a drip irrigation system with tubing and emitters or I believe 1/4" tubing with the little holes spaced every 4 or 6" installed ( my system runs on a timer with a backup battery in case of power loss). I rarely lose plants to the Summer heat, and in half the rare cases, the plant was infested with spider mites too.

Every rose bush or plant has two or more emitters, whereas the tubing with the little holes is used for things like groups of small annuals.

I share your sentiment, I cannot stand the cold... although, 104 degrees plus is just no fun either... thank goodness it comes and goes..

I'm by hand and hose too. I do have some soakers down but they don't seem to work all that well so I end up hauling the hose around and watering by hand. Drip would be nice but I'd have to break concrete in several places to get it out to the beds.

Mostly by Rain here...Natures automatic sprinkler system...lol...If I could send some to you I would...

Gee 100 degress...:-/ a type of drip irrigation system would probably be best for you as hand watering each day would be lots of work...Unless you only have a few roses...

Lol this post is hilarious..I use a hose or sometimes when I'm lazy I use the sprinkler for the lawn I just set it up to hit the roses as well..yes my back yard is that small

I live in a desert like Lynn (Desert Garden) where we might be lucky to receive 9-10 inches of precipitation (that includes any snow) a year. So I also have a drip system with emitters running to each large plant and shrub. Running off this system are dozens of tiny sprinklers, some a little taller than others. These can be moved around some, and serve to water perennials, annuals, and give additional water to roses where needed. I run the system manually, rather than programmed like the yard sprinklers, because I want the flexibility of changing the number of minutes and days to run. I do some hand watering, too, including all containers, a raised bed and random other stuff. Watering is a major chore here, and very costly. This year was an exceptionally wet one so we're happy for the extra rain, but it was also extra cold, too. Diane

Desert, nana, and halo, I also want an irrigation system, but it's out of my budget too :(

jim, if by a few roses you mean 50 and counting, then yes I have "a few" hahaha ;)

seil, I think the problem is I just need more spickets! Husband is gonna have to get on that lol.

Rose crazy, maybe I'll hit the sprinkler option :)

Everything in my yard is on drip irrigation. I do the drip irrigation system myself... it's really not that hard to do on your own. Watch a few good yourtube videos and you will have it down. I use bubblers for most of my roses instead of typical drip emitters... but if I do use drip emitters I use more than one (usually in a circle around the rose so it can build a stronger root system).

It needs a little checking and maintenance once you have it in, but it is easy to fix on your own too. And it is so much better than watering by hand or soaker hoses!

It is a very tough workout for your hands though! Much, much easier to work with the drip tubes when the weather is warmer so the drip tubes become more pliable.

I hand water most of the time and I have a lot of pots. When I go away I have to get drip lines to everything (I've been moving everything around this year so lines are out). As Lynn mentioned, I also use the line with holes every 6" wrapping the tubing around at least twice per rose bush. The individual drip heads don't distribute the water as well and I find it tedious to create the hosing system with all the "T" connectors and emitter heads - sheesh! The line with holes is much easier for me to lay out quickly and the water is dispersed evenly. I also have a couple of areas with sprayers so I can easily put smaller pots under them when I'm away, otherwise I hand water them as well. It's so super hot and dry here I have to be really diligent with watering and it's every day here. To combat the heat and dryness I also mulch the heck out of all the roses - usually 2-3 inches of compost mulch and medium bark.

I hand water 2 or 3 times a week (150 ft of good hose). Depending on the amount of rain I get. Right now, everything is good and wet. I wish I could get a good rain at least once a week.

We water only the first year and after that rely on rain, of which in normal years we have a good supply (this year we're experiencing a very nasty drought). My husband is my watering system, along with a half mile or so of hose--DH says perhaps a full mile. The garden is a few acres. It's a hassle, but I think soaker hoses would be, too.

Oh yes, as Towandaaz wrote, "mulch".... absolutely!! It really helps it hot Summer - 100 degree plus climates.

How about building something like this on piece of plywood, add some nice trim and a couple of posts. Place a few of these around the rose garden and you have a way of watering each rose using 1/4 inch hose without drippers. Each plant will get the same amount of water. All you have to do is time how long it gets the water.

Sound good? Okay, flip this design upside down so the you have one incoming feed line and 16 outgoing lines. (you can add more. One more row will give you 32 outgoing lines.) Or you can put a Y in the feed line (which could go to one of the other plywood units.

Each Y is nothing more than a small 1/4 inch Tee. The / is a small length of 1/4 inch hose (3 to 6 inches should do it). As you can see this can be put of a very small piece of plywood. From each outgoing Tee you run a 1/4 inch hose to a rose plant. Just run them down the path you walk on and cover them with mulch or just pin them to the grass. After a while you will not see them. Come winter time just blow the lines free with a air pump of don’t worry about it. The hose will expand. Should a hose leek just cut out a section, use two straight 1/4 inch connectors with a new section of 1/4 inch hose. Simple as that.

the feed line can be 1/2 inch plastic hose that you connect to a timer at the water source. You could have more than one timer, just place one at each plywood unit.

Not cheap by any means but you will have control and no moving parts. BTW they make inline 1/4 inch on/off units that you can twist to cut down on the amount of water going down that leg.

100 feet of 1/4 inch hose costs about $ 5 - $7. Rainbird sells the stuff.

Have fun….

Y Y Y Y Y YY YY Y Y Y Y Y Y Y
\ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ /
Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y
\ / \ / \ / \ /
Y Y Y Y
\ / \ /
\ / \ /
Y Y
\ /
\ /
\ /
\ /
\ /
\ /
Y
————---————|

Sorry but it looks like the spaces got wiped out..... oh well, you get the idea, right?? lol

There's no running water at my land,so I of course only water plants in their first year like Melissa. I collect rain water in tanks, and during the summer bring water out there with my car. It's a pain. I hope that in the future I'll stop putting in so many plants each year...

Forgot to add: I want a Watering Fairy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I got one rain fairy here, it has been raining for hours, no need to water today. Move up north by the Great Lakes, we have rain or snow from the lakes every week.

Well I'm super jealous of those of you who have rain often! I don't know why it didn't occur to me that it rains in other parts of the world lol.

Bart, I am so sorry you have to do that :(

toolbelt, that looks amazing, I'm going to show my husband because that's to complicated for me :) I do see why your name is toolbelt