Irrigation

Today I installed half of the drip irrigation for my Square Foot Garden. It's pressure tested and ready to go. Tomorrow, I set the timer and experience the magic happening. (!!)

Dadoo, That is wonderful I love water conservers. Be sure to still spend quality face time with your plants too. I once heard a proverb that stated " The best fertilizer is a gardener's shadow"

Hopefully, this will be my backup system. One of the goals this year is to use compost tea to meet at least 2/3s of the irrigation needs.

Congratulations Dadoo ! My 4 barrel rain collector is just done and now I want to get it somehow channeled into an irrigation system in the SFG boxes. It is about 60 feet from them to the garden and virtually no fall to help with gravity flow. I may set up a couple more elevated 55 gal barrels at the garden boxes and pump water into for elevated storage. One possibility is burying a PEX pipe out there just to keep it out of the way and reduce long term labor and clutter from on the ground hoses. Can drip irrigation work with only a few feet of elevation (bottom of barrel only a foot or so above the boxes). How much pressure is needed for it. Or is possibly just pvc pipe with drilled holes a better option for irrigation pipes. Later I could elevate the initial collector barrels to about 5-6 feet by building a heavy duty stand on the back of my house for them. So far not enough information has been found to help plan a successful project.

The pressure coming out of the bottom of the barrel should be enough for most drip systems. Remember a gallon of water wieghs 8 lbs and you are forcing it out of a small hole at the bottom of the drum/barrel. Also most drip systems have pressure restrictors that have to be placed on the hose bib from your house or you get to much pressure.