Finally! Drip Irrigation
I’ve been meaning to do this for years, but priorities are priorities, and watering just wasn’t enough of a pain point for me to get to it before now. Actually, I had really wanted to have a drip irrigation system in place before the garden tour, for demonstration purposes, but it just didn’t happen. Now that life has slowed down enough for me to breathe, I managed it in two days. The only reason it took that long is that I had to buy more bits.
Honestly, I was terribly intimidated going into the whole process. When reading the irrigation web sites, the quantity and variety of bits and pieces made my head spin. Never mind the calculations they were wanting me to make. My head doesn’t enjoy working that way. So I finally went to Lowe’s and bought a “vegetable garden” drip kit, by Mister Landscaper. For some reason, the kit isn’t listed on their web site. But it was about $37, and included the parts to attach at the faucet (filter, pressure regulator, etc), the hoses needed to get around the garden (1/2″ and 1/4″), the bits to connect said hoses, and the drip line to deliver the water to the veggies.
I have about 450 square feet of garden up front, and I had to go back to the store to get more 1/2″ hose, more drip line, and more bits. All in, I spent about $90, and I have stuff left over when I get to the back garden. As this system will last me for years, perhaps with a few minor modifications from year to year, it seems well worth the expense to me.
Here’s the setup at the faucet. I bought a splitter (brass – don’t waste your money on anything else; trust me) so I can still use my hose.:
Here’s the setup coming off of the main 1/2″ hose to a given type of veggie. The brown at the top is the dripline. The black bit attaching the dripline and black 1/4″ tubing is an on/off valve, so you can turn off water to that area once you harvest:
And here’s what one zone looks like:
Easy, cheesy. I’m really glad I started with a kit, rather than trying to build from scratch. I’ll probably get a “landscape” kit to set up the back garden, which is trees and perennials, then add on specific pieces as I did in the front.
The dripline puts out 1/2 gallon per hour. So I figure I’ll be watering the veggies about 2 hours/day, twice per week. I’ll let you know how that works out.
