Irrigation in Place

Today, Dave and I worked together to layout the rest of the irrigation system. It was Dave's suggestion earlier to use 1/4" vinyl irrigation tubing, instead of soaker hoses, to irrigate the rest of the garden. So, he came out to visualize how the system would work, and then we went to Lowe's to purchase what we needed. The system uses a series of splitter valves to rout the water, and various and sundry t-posts to run the hoses in all different directions. We're not finished yet--we still need to anchor the hoses down with cut up clothes hanger wire, and punch the drip holes--but we've got the most difficult part out of the way. Here's what we've got so far:

We started with a 15' length of hose and a main shutoff valve attached to the spigot.



Now we no longer have to crawl under the hedge to turn the water on! The main hose can be detached whenever it isn't in use, so the lawnmowers don't chop it up where it lies on the grass.



The main hose runs to this first four-way splitter along the East fence. The two valves on either end are attached to regular soaker hoses, which run along the perimeter beds. The middle-right 1/4" hose goes to the Southeast quadrant, which has the Zucchini, Carrots and Beet Greens. The middle-left hose goes to the second splitter.



This splitter is near the mid point of where the two main paths cross, and is anchored by a post. The far left 1/4" hose feeds a series of Tomato beds, the middle-right 1/4" hose feeds the Southwest quadrant, which has the Swiss Chard, Yellow Squash and Carrots. The yellow hose is a free floating hose, which ends in the spray nozzle. This will be used to water the Cabbages outside the fence. The middle-left hose goes to yet another splitter.



Right near the top of this post, you can see two very small shutoff valves. The idea here is to be able to regulate which areas need more or less water. From here, hoses go to more Tomatoes, Peppers, Tomatoes, Tomatoes, and more Tomatoes.



Here's Dave setting some of the hose. One thing that we've done with the 1/4" hose network is try to keep the whole thing linked together in a very elaborate circular system. The idea here is to try and keep the water pressure regulated and constant. We've never tried this before, so we could end up with a mess on our hands, but we think the system is sound.

Within the next couple of days, we hope to have the anchors in place and the drip holes punched. Then we'll really be in business.