watering

I have an empty bare land in my backyad. It measures about 3/4 acre. I would very much want to tilt and start an edible year round garden to feed 24 people. I am considering the SFG idea. But I can't figure out how to best handle the irrigation of the beds most efficiently, and economically. Our water is now metered and I want tto make sure water gets to the plants only. Would appreciates input. I love reading everyones entries. Soon I will posting pics of my garden, I hope.

to the forum, h20melon56. I'm not the best person to answer your question about irrigation systems, not having installed one myself as yet, but I just wanted to say welcome. I think you'll enjoy the forum.

There's such a nice group of folks on here who are always willing to help. I'm sure someone will be along to answer your questions soon. I hope to see you around the forum!!!

Hello and welcome. This is a forum.

You will probably want to use drip irrigation. A search of the forum for drip watering should turn up lots of info. I bought a small drip kit on sale at Lowes and added fittings as needed and a battery operated timer(the kit was under $30 and the timer was free from a friend). it works wonderfully. I only have one 4x8 bed plus a couple of smaller ones and I have really seen no increase in my water usage. During our hot dry weather (most of the year) I have it set to water 20-30 mins every day or every other day. I shut it off when we get rain. My emitters are mostly 1/2 gph. On very hot days I sonetimes manually trun it on a second time in the evening, if plants look droppy.

Also check out this link for info on an amazing garden with lots of good ideas in Modesto:

https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t2996-modesto-central-valley-ca

Rain barrels and 5 gallon buckets are your most efficient approach with metered water. However, there are many systems that will work well.