Q.when watering my garden, why doesn’t the water penetrate very deep?
We mix our own blend or actually we mix things like perlite, steer manure, sand, peat moss and compost into some store bought bagged raised bed soil organic. We fill our garden with this now. When I first started watering, the water would only go down 2 inches even with a whole lot of water — why would this be? Now i have some veggies planted and started real slow growing, but they are still alive and growing. What can i do to fix this? Even after a very hard rain the soil was dry below 2 inches.
We try not to use the native dirt as it hard bed clay.
Certified GKH Gardening Expert
Depending on, exactly, how much peat you used, I would be willing to bet that this is the issue. If it dries out thoroughly even once it will be VERY difficult to re-wet.
You can try a wetting agent, such as a few drops of dish soap, or a few drops of coconut oil mixed in very well.
This article will offer more insight: https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/garden-how-to/soil-fertilizers/soil-dries-too-fast.htm
