The last few years we have been watering the east garden by hand, which was manageable but tiresome. Earlier this year I experimented with some old soaker hoses I’ve had lying around but the results weren’t acceptable. Soaker hoses just don’t work very well when you’re trying to keep an area moist, such as when you are trying to germinate seeds or watering a patch of newly planted seedlings. This past weekend I finally executed on a long-fomenting plan and installed a 3-zone irrigation system using some landscaping irrigation pieces that I had used a few years ago to water in some foundation plantings that are now mature. I just love it when I can repurpose/recycle stuff that I have lying around.
From the photo you can see, I mounted the manifold to the side of one of my raised beds, close to the rain barrels. I used a block of cedar to create the clearance needed to connect the hose fittings. Water is fed from the rain barrels to a transfer pump which pressurizes the system. The pump provides sufficient pressure to run the entire system wide open and the manifold allows me to turn individual zones on or off. The water lines run along the ground as unobtrusively as possible and I used lots of elbows to neaten up the install. To hold the lines in place I crafted straps from a polypropylene bottle recovered from my recycling bin.
Although a straight line is the shortest distance between two points this would have required that two of the three lines run directly across main walkway into the patio, so, in the name of aesthetics and to prevent tripping risk, I ran two of the water lines around the perimeter of the garden. The good news is that I had the 200 extra feet of tubing lying around anyway. At the bed, the water line runs up the side, through an access hole cut into the top board and down the length of the bed. “Misters” are installed at varying points along the water line. This system is made by Mister Landscaper and was purchased at Lowes. It’s exceedingly simple to install and can easily be expanded or moved to suit your changing needs. Note that I arranged it so that the misters are pointing away from the seating area. In the heat of the summer I may just decide to turn those misters around.
Holy Moly! That looks like an ambitious project. Do you have to tie the thing into the existing plumbing, or do you just hook the hose up to it?
It’s actually really easy to lay down the tubing. It comes in 50 foot lengths and all the connections sort of snap together. It’s virtually fool proof.