Veggie Garden Soaker Hose Irrigation

Where I live in New Zealand we get long hot summer days. Just yesterday it was 32deg C (91 deg F) with a very strong hot wind we call the Nor’wester. This dries out our veggie garden very quickly. To help with automating the garden watering without wasting water and making it easier to weed and harvest, I set up a lawn soaker hose system.

By using flexible soaker hose you can easily move or roll the hose up. While you weed or during harvest, you don’t have to worry about damaging the watering system in your veggie garden plus you can quickly move the soaker hose to water different areas as the plants requirements change.

Step 1:

What you will need:

13mm garden irrigation hose (enough to run the length of your veggie beds)

13mm ‘T’ garden irrigation joiners (one for every second veggie row)

Lawn ‘soaker’ hose (the cheap green plastic hose with small holes along its length)

Cable ties (I love these - you can do so much with them!)

Staples or small nails (optional)

Comments

[finton]

It is better to water in the evening than during the day, for the reason you stated, but it is actually better to water early in the morning: the water still has time to soak in, but the leaves dry out with the rising sun so are not sitting wet all night - mould loves damp surfaces...

Good instructable, thanks: you have given me a different slant on using that same soaker hose. If I run the black feeder pipe along the back edge of my 20x1m garden, I could have short (1m) sections of the soaker hose every metre or so. This would prevent the water spraying off the garden and if there are no plants in a section, I could just block off that bit of irrigation. Another advantage would be that the irrigation runs the same direction as my rows (front to back 1m rows), so I could still hoe weeds without crossing the irrigation.

[kiwinewt]

That norwester sounds terribly familiar... you wouldn't happen to be here in Canterbury by any chance? :)

[tokala]

Hi
Yep, your right, I'm in Canterbury.

[genera]

I love your system but the last part of step 4 step left me clueless. Don't suppose you could add a photo of this please. I would like to see how how the cut off piece was later joined.

[genera]

Thank you I have never seen that type of hose fitting on a cheep soaker hose before. genera

[tokala]

Hi Genera

The garden hose fitting on the end of my soaker hose had a screw on fitting. Basically the same as a normal garden hose fitting similar to

http://img.alibaba.com/photo/270104325/hose_connector_garden_hose_connector_.jpg

I just heated the irrigation hose (the cup of hot water trick) and pushed the fitting onto the irrigation hose and did up the screw lock. I could then click my garden hose onto the watering system.

Hope that explains it for you.

[ancienthart]

I love this idea, cheap, simple and effective.
Now I just need a garden rather than the balcony of my flat. :D