I have manifolds for my rows in the gardens and the greenhouse. Inch and a half poly pipe with (about) 6 or 7 hose bibs and then soaker hoses. The soaker hoses are my weak spot because they don't last all that long.
What was your "Prep" for today?
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I have manifolds for my rows in the gardens and the greenhouse. Inch and a half poly pipe with (about) 6 or 7 hose bibs and then soaker hoses. The soaker hoses are my weak spot because they don't last all that long.
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I used Y valves, soaker hoses and solid hoses. Since it was 3 separate bed separated by a concrete walkway I had to use solid jumper hoses over it and a solid hose and soaker in the first bed. Two of them are across the front of the house, third separated from those. Could have used a "water spear" to wash out a small tunnel under the sidewalks but didn't want to risk damage to the walks.
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Shipping would kill us.😃
Btw, like your sig. That is hubby's moto - never enough hp. 🙂
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I used those round black leaky hoses. Not sure how long they'll last as mine were shaded. Seemed like they eventually started cracking.
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Weapons maintenance.
I've been using Harbor Freight flat 50 ft. but they are porous and it doesn't matter which way they are turned. I've tried others that do no better and are twice as expensive or more. I get a good season out of them and sometimes a second but it gets expensive changing them out.
I've seen you tube with PVC pipe with drilled holes that seem to work alright in the movies but not sure how they'll do in the real world. I've bought some pipe to try it but have not drilled them yet. Seems like they might be a problem with changing pressures due to pump cycle. Also the holes by necessity are rigidly spaced and non adjustable so that would put water where you don't want it and vice versa.
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For short runs, I use 1/4" lazer line. It has holes every six inches so I plant my seeds at 6" intervals. It works well for 12' runs but starts to lose pressure after that which causes uneven watering at the end of the run.
That's what I thinking might happen with the PVC, loss of pressure because I use 100 ft rows.
What's Laser line?
One of the youtubes I watched looked pretty neat. The guy had his holes at 6 in intervals and ran water briefly marking his 6" spots. Then he just planted his onion starts on either side of the pipe on those wet spots. He had rather short runs though.
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I think Laser line is a brand of drip line, I bought it at ACE. It's just 1/4" black flex line with holes in it. I have had good success feeding it from the 1/2" lines from both ends but that takes more 1/2" line.
I tried soaker hoses and soaker hoses with timers and I always ended up frustrated and replacing hoses.
Then I just spent several years holding a garden hose.
This year we've hit upon a solution that, so far, I just adore.
We replaced our old vinyl hoses with kink free cloth hoses from Costco. We kept the one vinyl hose that's in good shape.
We then bought two old school, back and forth rectangular sweep oscillating sprinklers from Walmart. We bought the heavy duty, all metal, gear driven models.
We bought two Orbit digital programmable sprinkler timers with rain delay features from Walmart.
We had to buy two separate timers with a single outlet each because we rely on two separate spigots to water the raised beds with their addendum containers in one area of the yard, and the bona fide container garden in another area of the yard. (I guess we could move the container garden to within the footprint area of the raised beds, but we've kinda filled that 8 hours of sunshine footprint to its max already while still allowing room to manuever with the lawnmower, etc. The two separate areas work best for now.)
You can buy single Orbit digital timers with two outlets if one spigot will serve your needs.
The hose and sprinkler that service the container gardens are in a location/configuration that is rarely moved, so we used the old vinyl hose for that application and used the timer on that hose. We put a splitter on that spigot and also attached the new light weight kink free cloth hose to that spigot. The lighter cloth hose can be used for situations that require moving the hose around, like washing the car, etc. That hose is attached directly to the splitter and is not on the timer.
The other cloth hose and sprinker service the raised beds and some containers we've added in that area.
That hose and sprinkler must be moved to cut the grass, so the lighter weight hose is great in that application.
I adjusted the sweep on the sprinklers to accommodate each garden footprint: a full back and forth sweep for the raised beds, and a one sided sweep for the containers.
We initially had both sprinklers programmed to run for 30 minutes every 12 hours.
We reduced the run time for the container garden sprinkler to 15 minutes every 12 hours; the one sided sweep put twice as much water on that limited footprint, so 15 minutes is adequate at this time of year.
Right now both sprinklers are on a rain delay: program in the number of days you need to delay. When that time elapses, the timer automatically expires the delay and returns to its pre-programmed regular schedule.
I believe I posted here about this once before.
I like it so well that I wanted to post a follow up.
I understand that the oscillating sprinklers aren't the most efficient watering method; especially in hot, dry weather a good portion of the water evaporates. We are fortunate enough to be on well water with a high water table, so for right now, if necessary, we can water longer to make up for evaporation.
IMHO, this method is way simpler and less expensive than multiple soaker hoses, and easier to manage. Except for moving one hose/sprinkler to mow around the raised beds and setting rain delays as needed, it's pretty much set it and forget it.
I had the same experience with soaker hoses splitting, cracking and failing after one or two seasons as many of you. It always took way more hoses than I imagined to adequately soak the garden footprint, and I'd invariably end up slicing through one or more hoses with a garden implement. =(
There's nothing quite like relaxing on the porch or on the deck in the evening with a cool beverage and watching the sprinklers turn on, water, and turn off automatically.
Then I just spent several years holding a garden hose.
This year we've hit upon a solution that, so far, I just adore.
We replaced our old vinyl hoses with kink free cloth hoses from Costco. We kept the one vinyl hose that's in good shape.
We then bought two old school, back and forth rectangular sweep oscillating sprinklers from Walmart. We bought the heavy duty, all metal, gear driven models.
We bought two Orbit digital programmable sprinkler timers with rain delay features from Walmart.
We had to buy two separate timers with a single outlet each because we rely on two separate spigots to water the raised beds with their addendum containers in one area of the yard, and the bona fide container garden in another area of the yard. (I guess we could move the container garden to within the footprint area of the raised beds, but we've kinda filled that 8 hours of sunshine footprint to its max already while still allowing room to manuever with the lawnmower, etc. The two separate areas work best for now.)
You can buy single Orbit digital timers with two outlets if one spigot will serve your needs.
The hose and sprinkler that service the container gardens are in a location/configuration that is rarely moved, so we used the old vinyl hose for that application and used the timer on that hose. We put a splitter on that spigot and also attached the new light weight kink free cloth hose to that spigot. The lighter cloth hose can be used for situations that require moving the hose around, like washing the car, etc. That hose is attached directly to the splitter and is not on the timer.
The other cloth hose and sprinker service the raised beds and some containers we've added in that area.
That hose and sprinkler must be moved to cut the grass, so the lighter weight hose is great in that application.
I adjusted the sweep on the sprinklers to accommodate each garden footprint: a full back and forth sweep for the raised beds, and a one sided sweep for the containers.
We initially had both sprinklers programmed to run for 30 minutes every 12 hours.
We reduced the run time for the container garden sprinkler to 15 minutes every 12 hours; the one sided sweep put twice as much water on that limited footprint, so 15 minutes is adequate at this time of year.
Right now both sprinklers are on a rain delay: program in the number of days you need to delay. When that time elapses, the timer automatically expires the delay and returns to its pre-programmed regular schedule.
I believe I posted here about this once before.
I like it so well that I wanted to post a follow up.
I understand that the oscillating sprinklers aren't the most efficient watering method; especially in hot, dry weather a good portion of the water evaporates. We are fortunate enough to be on well water with a high water table, so for right now, if necessary, we can water longer to make up for evaporation.
IMHO, this method is way simpler and less expensive than multiple soaker hoses, and easier to manage. Except for moving one hose/sprinkler to mow around the raised beds and setting rain delays as needed, it's pretty much set it and forget it.
I had the same experience with soaker hoses splitting, cracking and failing after one or two seasons as many of you. It always took way more hoses than I imagined to adequately soak the garden footprint, and I'd invariably end up slicing through one or more hoses with a garden implement. =(
There's nothing quite like relaxing on the porch or on the deck in the evening with a cool beverage and watching the sprinklers turn on, water, and turn off automatically.
Grape to egg size are the best!
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I've been hand watering the last 2 years, using a nozzle (shower pattern), and just walking down each row, dragging a hundred foot of hose.
I'm thinking of just getting some 1/4" drip hose with the holes, and plugging the holes where my two 4' walkways are. Just move the hose every 2-3 hours, depending on water coverage.
Went on a Sam's run this morning, most items stocked very good. Had TP everywhere. Cheated and got some of the already peeled garlic to dehydrate. Just could not go with the green garlic....to strange looking. Sliced it up and got 3 lbs in the dehydrator. Couple of hours in and no color change. Their sale ends tomorrow so was able to stock up on items I needed that was on sale. Surprising not busy at all.
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planting fruit trees and bushes was my prep ,,,a bit longer term ,,,but if i dont do it now when would a better time come?
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We had to evacuate due to Calf Creek/Hermit's Peak fire. Evacuated on 5/2/2022 from Las Vegas, NM to Pecos, NM. You can't pack everything to valuable, we packed documents, pictures and some mementos. The community has the red, yellow, and green status. We packed our 27 foot RV, truck and car with what we could. Sad the things you have to leave behind. We did not know when we could come back. Finally able to come home on 5/9/2022. Home smelled like smoke and still does. Ash in all the corners of window sills and doors.
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