A bed under a roof, a patio cover or indoors gets no rain
A bed under a roof, a patio cover or indoors gets no rain, so all of its water comes from you, whatever the weather.
Well established It is settled without a trial. If you skip this, it still grows, just less well. The planner suggests it.
How it works
The roof or ceiling stops the rain before it reaches the soil, so a wet week outside adds nothing to the water in the bed.
What to do about it
Water it by its own soil and never by the weather outside: a rainy week is no reason to skip it. Push a finger in to the second knuckle and water if it is dry there, and when you water, soak it down to the roots.
The evidence
Evidence: settled without a trial (definition).
Where this rule stops
It knows only what you tell it about the bed, and it treats a bed as all open or all covered. A bed that sits partly under an overhang has a dry side it cannot see.
The bed's rain is the gardener's own answer to "Does rain reach it?" (open sky, under a roof, indoors), a property of the bed like its structure, so the flag is emitted once for the bed. A covered or indoor bed never reads the month's rainfall (another rule here is for open beds). It sets no amount and no interval: another rule here stands.
Read next
How this rule has changed
Every change is dated, newest first. The full record, with each reason, is in the data download.
- Added to the rules
Cite this page
Milpa Gardens. "A bed under a roof, a patio cover or indoors gets no rain, so all of its water comes from you, whatever the weather." Evidence grade: Well established. https://milpa.garden/rules/bed-under-roof-patio-cover-indoors-gets/
A garden planner built on graded evidence. Every claim states its evidence grade and links its sources on the page. Cite it with the grade, and add the date you read it.
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How we grade evidence
- Well established
- The rule names its mechanism and is settled, by sources a person has read and checked or by plain arithmetic and geometry.
- Promising
- The mechanism is named and the literature backs it. A few questions are still open.
- A good hunch
- Plausible by its mechanism, but field studies are thin, so treat it as a lean.
- Contested
- The evidence points both ways, or no study has tested it, so the planner does not enforce it.
- Refuted
- The claim did not survive its sources. It is kept so the folklore can be answered.