How to Water Your Garden While Cooking Dinner III

I wrote about two ways to water your garden while doing other chores.  I will now explain my third and last inexpensive way to get the job done.

Here is how the third system works.  You will need enough soaker hose to cover the areas that need to be watered.  (In my case, I purchased two fifty foot lengths, one per season over two years.)  Spread out the hose in each bed so that all of the plants in that bed get enough water from the soaker hose.  (I use two different patterns.  Either a spiral or an S-curve pattern.  The spiral pattern round a tree.   An S-curve in most other beds.)

For the spiral, start at the tree trunk.   Circle the tree laying down the hose in a spiral with about 12" between each successive ring until the outside edge of the bed is reached.  Using the S-curve, snake the soaker hose back and forth with about 12" between each lay of hose.   Be careful not to make a bend too tight or the water flow will be diminished.  Once the hose is spread cover it with compost.  This will hide the hose and keep the water from spraying into the air loosing it to evaporation plus keep the soil moist longer and feed the plants, slowly.

In either pattern the far end of the soaker hose must have a male threaded mending fitting and a cap with a rubber/plastic washer to prevent leaks.  The other end, or supply end, will have a female threaded mending fitting.  Now here is the difference in this system from either of the other two systems.  The supply ends must have quick connect fittings, as will the garden hose end.  The quick connect fitting on the garden hose will have its own shut off valve. You are now able to quickly connect to a bed and adjust the water at the bed.  No more running back and forth to see if the pressure is correct.  Then you will run the water to each bed using a timer as I explained before.  Once that bed has been thoroughly watered, disconnect move the hose to the next bed, connect and adjust valve at garden hose end.

This system still uses the same soaker and garden hoses but does not move them from bed to bed.  By keeping the soaker hose in the beds all season it will reduce the damage done to the plants when the soaker hose is placed into and removed from the beds.  This third system does not use all the gang valves as in the second system and thereby needs more labor to connect/disconnect and move the garden hose from bed to bed.  No matter which system you choose, one of them will work for you.  Let me know which you choose and why and how it works.

Soaker hose around tree

S-curved method

As a post script -The quick connect fittings may also be used in the first system.  Doing that will add the valve at the garden hose end and eliminate the need to walk between the spigot and the soaker hose to regulate the water pressure.  It will also allow the quick disconnection of the soaker hose and connection of a nozzle onto the garden hose.

Female quick connect fitting with valve on hose and male quick connect on nozzle

Lowe's Link
SWAN  1/2"Dia. x 75'L Soaker Hose

Item #: 288510

Gilmour  1/2" POLY HOSE REPAIR - 

FEMALE END

Item #: 36788

Gilmour  1/2" POLY HOSE REPAIR - 

MALE END

Item #: 36776

Gilmour  5-Piece Quick Connect 

Starter Kit with Shut-Off

Item #: 99316

Item #: 228740

How to Water Your Garden While Cooking Dinner II

In my last post I told you how to assemble and use a simple inexpensive watering system.  Now I will describe how to dress up your system.

Just to reiterate, you now have a 8'-10' length of 1/2" soaker hose attached to your garden hose.  You arrange that soaker hose in your beds and around bushes and trees.  You then turn on your spigot at a low pressure, set a timer to sound an alarm in one hour and you attend to other chores until the alarm sounds.  At that time you move the soaker hose to a different bed, bush or tree and repeat until all of your plants are watered sufficiently.


Here are some other attachments you may add to your system to make your work even easier (you know the adage, "Work smarter, not harder").

First off there are longer lengths of soaker hose that you can cut into custom lengths that will fit your beds or around your bushes and trees.  These lengths of soaker hose can be attached either using male and female hose ends or by hose repair couplings.  You may also need some lengths of regular 1/2" garden hose.  If you will be using the longer lengths of soaker hose, adding valves is a good idea.

Start by purchasing a gang valve with four outlets.  Each outlet will have a dedicated valve.  You can now have four discrete watering systems.  I suggest one be dedicated to your garden hose which you will use for washing the patio, filling your bird baths, watering hanging pots and other purposes.  The next valve will go to one bed or the first plant in a longer line of plants.  The third and fourth will follow, likewise.

You may also want to add valves along a long run to turn off a bed that has plantings that may not need as much water as those in the beginning of the run.  My vegetable square foot garden tends to get excessively wet, because of the way I built the bed.  So, I have a valve to turn off or restrict the water going to my square foot garden.

Then there is the addition of a timer.  Timers are available as either wind-up mechanical or battery operated digital.  The mechanical is less costly.  I had a mechanical timer and I liked using it but it broke a few years ago and I haven't replaced it.  I guess I really don't need it.  The timer and alarm works better for me.  If the water timer goes off and I don't realize it, I may not get back outside to turn it on for another leg of my system.

I may have gotten too involved with this whole soaker hose system, but I like it.  I will add in some photos and captions below to try and illustrate.

In my next post I will describe another system without using the gang valve which uses more labor but, it may be the system for your needs.

This is the spigot that supplies the water to my backyard soaker hose system.  You can see the 4 valve gang unit on the ground to the right and a Y splitter on the left.  The splitter on the left supplies water to the left side of the bed that runs the width of the house or a long run to five bushes and a bed around a tree 30 some feet from the spigot.  I have a sheet of plastic under the bed by the house to try and keep water from entering the basement and that bed can get oversaturated quickly.  That is why I have the valve there.

This is a close-up of my 4 valve gang unit.  As you can see I have only one original threaded hose end on any of the hoses going to or from the gang unit.  If you look closely you will see that only one valve of the four is on and that one goes to the beds that run behind my patio and to the vegetable square foot garden.

I hope you are able to see the green hose with a yellow mender running to my lacecap hydrangea.  That run then continues to a rhododendron and a bed that circles a Norway Maple.  I just finished running the hoses this spring and didn't have time to cover them with soil or mulch.

This is the continuation of that run from the house to my Sambucus nigra-black lace, Clethra alnifolia-summersweet, Cercis canadensis-redbud, Hydrangea macrophlla normalis-lacecap, Rhododendron & a bed around a mature  Acer saccharinum-silver maple and both hosta and hemerocallis of unknown varieties

How To Water Your Garden While Cooking Dinner

Image from http://www.computerclipart.com/

How much time do you spend watering your garden?   A couple of hours per day?  Do you stand above your flower/vegetable beds, bushes and trees holding the nozzle at the end of your garden hose, watering from above?  Do you wish it were easier?  If you read what I have written below I guarantee, you will be able to water and do laundry or cook at the same time.  Who doesn't want to learn to juggle?

If you don't already know, it is best to water plants at ground level.  Watering at ground level puts the water where it is needed, at the roots.  Watering from above may cause all kinds of problems which could ultimately kill your plants.  Here are a few reasons not to water from above:

•Watering from above at the hotter times of day will leave drops of water on the leaves that could act as little magnifying lenses that will intensify the heat of the sun and damage the leaves.

•Watering from above in the evening will leave water on the leaves that could result in mildew, again damaging the leaves.  

•Watering from above wastes water because some of the water is easily changed into water vapor that evaporates into the air

•You probably don't stand in one spot long enough to get the proper amount of water to each plants

There are at least three methods to water at ground level.  The least expensive way to water at ground level is to lay a nozzleless hose on the ground at the base of a plant, bush or tree and leave the water on at a trickle for a long time.  This method limits the spread of the water to a small portion of the root system or flower/vegetable bed.  The ideal way to water at ground level is with a drip irrigation system of hoses and emitters, a filter, back flow valve, timer, moisture sensors and a fertilizer siphon.  That system will get expensive.  I have a less expensive process using a bit more labor (there are trade-offs in everything).  Here is my simple, inexpensive solution.

For this inexpensive system you only need two parts, one of which you most likely already own.  You will need your garden hose and at least a 8-10 ft section of 1/2" round soaker hose.  That is the total simple system.  Here is how it works.


The soaker hose is made of recycled automobile tires (that sounds green, give yourself a hug).  It has a female end that will screw onto your garden hose and a male end that usually comes with a cap to stop the water from just flowing through the hose and out the other end.  That is the system to water your flower and vegetable beds, bushes and trees.  Now that you have your system put together, I will describe how to expend your labor to make it work.

With your hose already attached to the spigot, attach the soaker hose to the garden hose.  Carry the soaker hose to the bed, bush or tree where you want to start your watering.  Lay down the hose around the tree, bush or snake it through the flower or vegetable bed.  Return to the faucet and turn it on to allow the water to flow.  You don't need it on full blast, use the trial and error method to figure out how much pressure to put on the soaker hose.  If you leave in the restricting washer that comes with the soaker hose, even though you turn on the spigot full blast the water will be restricted to a slow flow and low pressure on the soaker hose.  Avoid high pressure on the soaker hose as it will cause a hose wall blow out creating a hole that will defeat the purpose of the soaker hose altogether.  I turn on the spigot until I hear the water flowing then check the far end of the soaker hose to see the rate at which the water is seeping.  I don't want to see the water spraying from the hose like small fountains, just weeping like tears from a saddened child.  Now you can go back to other chores.  Note the time or set a timer for one hour.  When the timer alarm sounds or one hour has elapsed, check to see how far the water has seeped from the hose.  I like to see the ground wet at least 6" each side of the hose.  If you want, dig into the ground with your fingers, it should be wet at least 3" deep.  Now is the time to move the soaker hose to another bed, bush or tree.  Set the timer again and go back to chores, or photographing the birds in your backyard.

You could get even more sophisticated with this system. You can add multiple valves and a timer or get crazy with solenoids, moisture sensors and Arduinos but, I am trying to keep this simple and inexpensive.  I will explain a more sophisticated system in a later post.

Bird Bath and Watering the Garden

The temperatures have been hovering near 100ºF, 38ºC, for over 6 days now, 105º, 40ºC, Friday alone.  The bird bath that I rescued from an abandon urban garden is the best addition to the garden.  I positioned a dripper over the bird bath.  This dripper, which I run water through sometimes, makes noise which helps to attracts birds.  The bird bath brings more birds to my window than the feeder or flowers.  Cat birds, robins, blue jays, house sparrows, house finches, gold finches, and mourning doves are those that come to the bird bath.  They all come to drink and bathe.

I use a soaking hoses to water the garden.  That attracts birds, also.  The soil was rock hard before I watered using the soaking hoses yesterday.  Once watered the soil was wet and loose.  Worms traveled toward the surface, both to the moisture and from the water, so as not to drown.  With the worms near the surface the robins had a feast.  I recommend getting a water source for the wildlife in your backyard.  A large flat bowl will do as long as the depth is no more than 2" or 50mm with a gradual slope from the greatest depth to the rim.  You will not regret adding a bird bath.