GardenFork – Eclectic DIY

Tag: soaker hose

Drip Irrigation for a Container Garden – GF Video

Here’s a DIY project to provide drip irrigation for a container garden, easy to do watch the video to see how.

Container gardens dry out quickly, which is why I built this system. This is based on using soaker hoses to wrap around the inside of each container, and attaching the hose to a water timer.

The hardest part of this drip irrigation for container garden system is getting the water. I can’t answer that one for you, as each situation is different. For this rooftop, we were able to bring the water up through a kitchen window in the back of the building. If you are going to bend the hose over a ledge, be sure to provide support where it bends over the wall, it can rub and leak.

The first thing to do when starting this is to uncoil the hose in the hot sun, and let it sit there for a few hours. This will allow the hose to straighten and you can work with it easier. Try to find 3/8″ soaker hose for this project. It bends easier.

To keep the hose inside the containers, you can use coat hanger wire cut into a U shape and pushed over the hose into the soil. Or use cable ties with holes drilled into the plastic pots. Rocks can also hold down the hose, but then you have to get rocks onto your balcony or roof. Not fun.

If you have a container garden on a patio, this is perfect. Water is easy to get to. I push the pots together to create a mass planting, and to hide the hose as it goes from pot to pot. As you can see from these photos, this system also works great for urban areas. How are you planning on using this? Let us know in the comments below.

June 28, 2016
DIY Soaker Hose Irrigation System – GF Video

I put together this DIY soaker hose irrigation system for my raised bed vegetable garden and made a video for you. With this and a timer, I don’t have to spend time watering by hand, and wasting water. Soaker hoses are great for slowly watering your garden while saving water. In another video I show how to run a garden hose underground to your garden beds.

Steps to build your DIY soaker hose irrigation system:

The video explains it quite well, I think, but here are some photos and tips to make it all work.

Soaker hose is available in a few different diameters. Lately I’ve been seeing mostly 3/8″ diameter hose. Buy the hose tubing connectors that match your diameter. Either a farm supply store or a hardware store will probably have the T and elbow connectors.

Soaker hose is easiest to work with when it has been sitting in the sun for a few hours. Lay it out flat, use some rocks to hold the ends and keep it from curling. It cuts easily with a wire cutters or scissors. Be sure to cut off about 6″ of hose with the feed end of the hose before cutting the lateral lengths that run down the bed.

If your hose pressure is enough to pop out the elbows and Ts, use wire or cable ties to connect the hoses. At the hose ends, I use a wooden dowel or bend over the end of the hose. Sometimes bending the hose doesn’t work.

Parts needed for this project:

Easy To Program Water Timer

Good quality soaker hose

Here is a diagram of the watering system for my raised bed vegetable garden:For my beds, I run a hose across the bottom end of the bed for a trellis. I usually plant snow peas or beans on a trellis at both ends, and the lateral soaker hoses don’t do a great job of getting to all the seeds I plant along that edge.

For connecting the garden hose to the bed, I show in this soaker hose installation video how I bury the hose so the lawn mower doesn’t run over it.

I have found it best to use your soaker hose drip irrigation system once or twice a week in the early morning, you want long deep watering, not short shallow watering. Here is a garden hose timer that works well for automated watering.

June 28, 2016
Well Water Pump Repair! GF TV video

The electric pump that pumps water to our drip irrigation system broke down, so its time for some electric motor repair. This pump supplies water to our drip irrigation system for our vegetable garden. We use soaker hose watering system for the garden, you can watch our how to make a DIY drip irrigation system video here

But the pump broke. I think it got flooded with the heavy rains we had. GF Radio co-host Mike suggested replacing the capacitor, so we ordered one and we’ll see what happens in the video here.

What we’ve learned about drip irrigation:

Most vegetables and flowers do not have to be watered everyday. I found myself over-watering the plants when I first turned on the plant watering system. I know have the water timer set to turn on the water every 3 days and it runs for an hour. The plan is to water the soil well and then let it dry out between waterings. You don’t want wet soil all the time. If you notice moss growing in your vegetable beds, you are over watering your plants.

Several beds have plastic mulch over the soil, we put the soaker hoses under the plastic and it all works fine. Check out the links below for more drip irrigation videos and posts

Soaker Hose Drip Irrigation How-to Video

Rooftop Container Garden Watering System Video

Flower Garden Watering system

July 11, 2012
Drip Irrigation System with Soaker Hose – GF Video

I use this homemade DIY drip irrigation system with soaker hose for my raised vegetable beds. Its easy to build and works great. Watch the video to see our first take on a soaker hose system. If you want to build a simpler version see my video for PVC connected soaker hose system.

The drip irrigation system I built uses copper pipe, which can be expensive, you can also use PVC pipe to build the manifolds that feed the soaker hoses.

I dug a slot into the ground and pushed the garden hose into it to hide the hose feeding each raised bed. This makes lawnmower much easier too, no chance of running over a garden hose that way.

Key to watering your garden with drip irrigation is to not water it too much, i know its fun to watch the water ooze out of the soaker hoses, but you want the beds to dry out a bit between waterings. I water my vegetable beds every 4-5 days. Tomatoes, especially, grow best when the soil dries out between waterings. Too much water is just as bad as not enough water, it makes it easy for fungus and disease to grow.

How long do soaker hoses last? I’ve had these in the ground year round for about 10 years. Some hoses have leaked, but not a lot. And its obvious when they are leaking, and easy to fix. All you do is cut out the leak, and connect the two pieces back together with a piece of pipe.

If the water pressure going into the hoses is fairly low, or if you use an inline pressure reducer attached to the garden hose, you can use cable ties instead of clamps to put the lines together.

Water timers for garden hoses have improved a bit lately, below is one i recommend. Some of these timers are awful to try to program.

September 27, 2009