I have to admit first off that I'm not a gardener, and unfortunately don't have much interest, but this situation does concern me a bit, so I thought I'd ask here.
I live in a 5-apartment building in the Bay Area which has quite a nice garden. Though the owner has little interest in maintaining it, a woman in another apartment likes to turn the hose on.
However, her scheme is to put the hose end at the base of a bush or tree, and let it run for 24 hours or so... Afte I've heard it running that long, *I* usually go and turn it off.
Yesterday I put a measuring cup under the running water, and got a pint in about 15 seconds. This works out to over 700 gallons in the time it was on (or ~4 cu.ft./hr if you prefer, which -- depending on how far the water spreads -- sounds like about a foot of rain per hour!).
Am I right in thinking this is way too much, or are my assumptions wrong somewhere? My personal interest -- aside from the fact that we're low on water in California this year -- is the lovely lemon tree that I'd hate to see damaged.
Answers appreciated. -- Pete --