I have been watering container plantings of annuals and newly transplanted plants.

I've been watering pots for a while. I expect to start watering certain parts of the garden on Thursday. I have sand, and a lot of recently planted babies.

Good heavens. I started watering in February during that hot spell. I water like a fiend all day and night, and my yard is a swamp when it rains in winter.

I use a water meter to see just how wet any particular spot is.

The other day I needed a lodge pole to stake a bush so worked one by an aspen out of the ground and then used a flashlight to peer down the deep hole. The water table is 2' below at that spot, and the earth moist but not wet until it hits the water table. My trees have not yet grown their roots deep enough to hit that luscious water table so I have to water them.

There's nothing like a good steady downpour to really make the trees happy. Tap water keeps them alive but they LOVE and thrive in rain.

Now 3 years 5 months since 1st 200 trees planted, and they are definitely putting on growth this spring. It's a jungle. For the first time it is an exquisite delight instead of a continual worry. If nothing else dies, all I have to do is water until the roots are established, prune, shape, compost, wormcast and enjoy.

So unbelievably beautiful, how bounteous and soothing Nature is.

Recent May-months have been erratic over the past decade in PDX, with many heat spikes. June usually clouds over and is more consistent. Regular watering begins on July 5th!

Even so, unless your soil is extremely porous, brief May heat does not dry the winter-wetted ground out to any real depth.

After all, we have had 3.2" rain and rain on 14 of the first 19 May days. Obviously new vegetable gardens and pots need watering. Shrubs with very shallow roots can use a surface wetting.

This current dry spell is exceptional in that it is so sunny, but there have been no east winds.

Water as needed!

I started watering last weekend. We're in a spot where rainfall tends to go around us so things are already drying up!

There is no set timetable for when to begin watering. Rainfall varies considerably from area to area and both soil conditions and deflection of rainfall from taller growing trees and plants will play a role also. It's pretty darn unusual that anywhere in the PNW would require watering in February, typically one of our wettest months, but as larry gene states, water as needed :-)

FWIW, container plants will always require watering attention earlier than those grown in the ground - they heat up and dry out much faster because of lack of soil mass. I generally never needed to water my old garden until well into 'summer' (whatever that is) when we finally moved into a consistantly dry period. Watering deeply but less often will encourage plants to develop deeper roots and greater drought tolerance so you don't need to water as often. Even here in the PNW where it seems we have so much water, it is still a precious and limited commodity and we should use it as sparingly as possible.