Measuring The Water In Your Garden

By Phran Novelli

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Do you need to water your plants? Did it rain while you were gone? You know what? GET A RAIN GAUGE. It's just a simple tube with measurements on it, but it can save you a lot of money in wasted water and it can save your plants. All the money you spent on annuals, perennials, shrubs and trees this spring, can be lost if they die of thirst this summer.

While weather reports tell you how much it rained in the Philadelphia area, unless you live at the Airport - that doesn't mean much to your garden! I've been two miles away from home when a thunderstorm dumped inches of rain, and come back to find my garden wet, yet my rain gauge had just a trace.

Without it, I would've thought my plants had gotten a lot more water than they had. So, just get a rain gauge to protect everything you've spent money planting. Plus, it's fun to see how much rain falls all at once; after just one recent storm, my rain gauge had almost four inches in it.