When I started out the growing season I expected to spend the summer hand watering. I made garden beds so that plants could share water, taking advantage of what would have been wasted runoff. The season started off fairly well, with rainfall every ten days or so. In between, the weather got hot and the soil got dry. Hand watering got old. I used a sprinkler a few times, but it wasted water on weeds outside the garden and over-watered some areas.
Around the end of May, Kathy bought me a fifty foot drip hose. It was a revelation. I snaked the hose around through two of the tomato beds, on top of a deep layer of mulch. It gave water where I needed it and companion plants like marigolds and basil benefited from the water in between. For Fathers' Day, my daughter Kelly gave me two twenty-five foot drip hoses, which I wound through the third tomato bed and a squash bed. I use a hose splitter to feed the hoses for the tomato beds at the same time and then move the water hose to the third drip hose when the tomatoes are sufficiently watered.
The rest of the garden still gets hand watered, but it's not so bad.
Next year I hope to have more drip hoses and at least one four hose splitter manifold. I will lay out the garden in wide rows, rather than beds and run the hoses in straight lines. I'll still hand water the greenhouse and the orchard, but watering the garden will be so much easier.
Around the end of May, Kathy bought me a fifty foot drip hose. It was a revelation. I snaked the hose around through two of the tomato beds, on top of a deep layer of mulch. It gave water where I needed it and companion plants like marigolds and basil benefited from the water in between. For Fathers' Day, my daughter Kelly gave me two twenty-five foot drip hoses, which I wound through the third tomato bed and a squash bed. I use a hose splitter to feed the hoses for the tomato beds at the same time and then move the water hose to the third drip hose when the tomatoes are sufficiently watered.
The rest of the garden still gets hand watered, but it's not so bad.
Next year I hope to have more drip hoses and at least one four hose splitter manifold. I will lay out the garden in wide rows, rather than beds and run the hoses in straight lines. I'll still hand water the greenhouse and the orchard, but watering the garden will be so much easier.
The soaker hose delivers water to plants without wetting the foliage.
A splitter allows me to water two areas at once or use the cutoffs to select which area to water. A manifold would allow me to control four soaker hoses at once.
Stephen
All photos are copyright 2017, Stephen P. Scott
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