Watering a garden with a drip irrigation system uses a lot less water than sprinklers. There is almost no water loss to evaporation in the air, and you aren’t watering all the walkways and places where nothing is growing. Drip irrigation also makes watering the garden super simple–just turn it on and turn it off–no moving sprinklers or dragging hoses. Hook it up to a timer and the garden practically waters itself. Plus, the water always goes just where you want it, even if the wind is blowing.
We have been watering our garden with various modifications of drip irrigation for over 10 years. We finally got the whole thing almost linked together this year. We use actual drip irrigation parts and not soaker hose. We tried soaker hose and although it is easy to find and we got ours on sale so got a good price on it, it has its disadvantages. The hoses are not made to soak evenly, although they do a pretty good job as long as they are laid out straight. Any part of a soaker hose that is curved or looped increases the water output at that curve since you’re stretching the holes open on the outside of the curve. This reduces pressure on the rest of the line. Soaker hoses also do not withstand sunshine and heat very well and love to spring leaks usually after the first year of use. You can cut soaker hose to the length you want and install a new end on it, although it’s kind of laborious and you end up with lots of little lengths of hose that aren’t much good for anything.
Using drip irrigation parts solves most of those problems. The drip rate is even throughout the line whether it is running straight or curved. The lines are sold in rolls and the lines are super easy to cut to length, add valves or tees or elbows, and splice together. The parts stand up to use for many years. Our garden bed lines and corn t-tape have been in use for about three years now with no problems.
Want to take a tour of my garden system? Check out the video below. Try not to get motion sickness–I guess I could have walked a little slower. If the video doesn’t load for you, you can get it here. If you want pictures of most of the parts and junctions, I have them in this post from when we put the main parts of the system together.
Keep preparing! Angela
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