Starting out, I watered everything by hand - either with a hose or watering cans. It got to be very time consuming being I kept adding new beds. Thank goodness, my husband loves irrigation and we have a large 8 acre spring fed pond behind our back yard that we water our lawn with. He installed some nice irrigator type sprinklers to cover my largest bed. We have been discussing adding more irrigation to cover my other beds as well.

I still water the ones furthest from the house with a hose - I have one particular wand that I absolutely love - it mimics natural rain fall, so it has a nice gentle flow. I just try to water more around the hostas or get under the leaves instead of straight down on the plant leaves.

This past year, I didn't even need to water because we had so much rain. Over 30" from late June till Fall. It was nice to have a break!

I have only a 1/2 acre lot, tried out soaker hoses on 1/4 of my yard. I had to let them run for hours to see an effect. Some years I did not get around to blow the water out before winter and they cracked. After 5 years I had to mend them too often.

Last year I had an irrigation guy come and give me an estimate to do all my landscape. He said I needed 64 sprinkler heads = $ 5,800., was too much for me. For now I have two connections at the house to water everything with hoses and overhead sprinklers. That hose arrangement is simple and easy to do for the few weeks when it is really needed. Automatic sprinkler systems are not simple and also have their maintenance.
Bernd

My situation is perhaps a bit unique in that my watering troubles come from squirrels. In 2009, they chewed every one of my garden hoses multiple times. Hubby would no sooner get them repaired before they were again chewed.

I decided to install some drip irrigation off of a spigot I had installed in the back of my border, hoping the squirrels would not destroy that. But, they did indeed ruin that system as well, removing mulch to get to funny pipe.

Early in 2010, I called our irrigation company who installed our entire yard's system in 2009 to inquire about adding another zone to our existing sprinkler system and found it to be cost prohibitive (I should've just had it done at install). So, I came up with the idea to hard-line in some sprinklers. These are the same in-ground varieties used in our lawn, but the risers are strapped to fence posts. In some places, they're only 2-3 feet high. In the back corner where I planted some shrubs, they're 6' high. The entire system was installed in an hour or two, put on a manual timer, so all I have to do is go out and turn on the timer when we've not had enough rain to make the hostas happy. On my system, every 10 minutes of water = .1 inch. And the garden is about 90% covered by this system. The remaining 10% is covered by the lawn sprinklers. I will add that these need to be blown out when the rest of the system is winterized in the fall.

I should add that overhead watering was not my first choice either, but since I'm adding irrigation after the fact, it was not practical to dig in the drip irrigation... this would require digging into the root zones of hosta (not ok). And the squirrels chew the funny pipe if it's not dug in. And, I'm also still in the mode of moving hosta around and I don't want to have to worry that I'll hit funny pipe with the shovel.

berny... bet you could do it yourself for under $750 ...

copy/paste this:

http://www.dripworksusa.com/

and compare to the link ...

since it is all plastic... just a couple cheap tools.. and a plan.. and any retiree can do it over a summer ... and a cheap compressor to blow it out in fall ..

ken
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Here is a link that might be useful: link

Hey Thanks Ken,

My old fiskars soaker hoses are beginning to leak big holes. That's the best system I've found up to now. They had all these connectors for 1/2" soaker hose to set up in any way you wanted. Home Depot carried them for a while.

In my part of Texas, we have plenty of water until July. Then it dries up until October, so we have to irrigate. A county agent said we have plenty of water, it just doesn't come at the right time.

I'll follow up on your link.

Thanks,

Bkay

I agree with you Bkay - the Fiscar system was great. I built soaker and drip systems in 2/3 of my gardens and then they discontinued the products. The hoses were all layed out on top of the beds like Ken's pictures (however I experimented with different hose configurations to accomodate the curvey shapes and grades of my beds). When possible, I connected the systems directly to my outdoor faucets around the foundation of my home with hoses I placed underground.

To Ken's point - even if you are not retired, it is very easy to build out a soaker or drip system. Some rough drawings on paper helped me map out the design and materials needed. The key is to build the core of the system (all the hose lines) before the hosta come up - early in the spring. Therefore, this discussion is very timely Beverly. I stock piled a lot of the Fiscar materials to handle repairs and additions in the garden. However my supplies are running low. I have not found a (reasonably priced) alternative to date. I will check out your link Ken.

Fiscar had they great little free booklet on how to design a system. I wish I still had a copy. I looked online and found a nice visual of a similar system - scroll down to the end of the page.

Here is a link that might be useful: Visual of how a System might be assembled

Thanks for the links.

I think I will consider a better set up for soaker hoses for some locations and sprinklers for others. I do have a tendency to move plants around, divide them and share them with others so these above ground ideas might be best. I am going to draw up a plan for spring.

"cheap compressor to blow it out in fall"-we have one of these, I didn't even think to use it.

Great ideas people. Whats the best watering can and, Sharlened, what was the name of that watering wand you had.

here is the root of the deal ...

the recycled tires that a lot of you call soaker hoses.. are useless... they are not ENGINEERED for pressure.. and the longer you make them.. the more erratic the actual delivery of water .... what works on 50 feet of hose .. fails to water the whole line at 150 feet ... make sense??

the products we are talking about.. are ENGINEERED for constant pressure over a given distance ...

so maybe .. its limit is 100 feet... then you make a new zone .. etc ...

you start by figuring out the pressure at the spigot .... and then you can estimate how big a zone you can cover ...

and if the pipe puts out 1/4 gal per hour per nozzle .. then in 4 hours... you will have put down one gallon per nozzle .... ON THE GROUND.. of which 99% goes into the soil ...

if you use the old rainbird.. i wouldnt be surprised the 75% goes into the sky ....

anyway.. if you are hardcore.. and think the investment worthy.. call any one of the sites.. and find out how to start ...

buff's link.. down the page.. shows connectors that are very similar to mine ....

i started it all.. with the mortgage map .... which allowed me some perspective on shape and form.. and size of various beds ...

i also started by going to the local rainbird office.. which eventually turned into the john deere office... all my supplies came from john deere landscaping .... though they are a hardcore nursery/greenhouse industry .... if you get the right salesman.. they should be willing to help the home gardener ... but one thing for sure.. this is a good time to call ... as the greenhouse biz starts rolling fast here in a month or so... you are not going to be the money maker a million dollar corp. is going to be... in other words.. dont call during the rush season and demand service ....

ken

Here is a link that might be useful: link

google DRIP IRRIGATION KITS ...

link to a KIT ... the ULTIMATE.. lol ...

even has a video ...

i have a well and bladder tank ... with lots of sand.. my filter is much bigger ... and the bladder is set to turn off.. which means allow free flow of water when i have 3 zones open ... my 8 psi regulators at each zone siphon off total 24 # ... so that the bladder tank.. set between 50 and 60 ... stays on.. and ignores the balloon ... meaning CONSTANT PRESSURE ... rather than cycling up and down ...

and the regulator ... well it depends how many zones you want to do at once.. subject the the pressure you can develop ...

from my house.. i have 1 inch main lines... and from that.. i have various zones ...

ken

Here is a link that might be useful: link

Beverly - the wand I have is by Dramm, model: Sunrise Rain Wand. I think there are two kinds - one with an on/off valve and one with a hand grip. I prefer the valve, as I find my hand gets cramped having to hold it wide open. Also, mine are several years old and now I see they have ones that are longer and curved, which would be nice. I just might have to get myself a new one!

Here is the link to their site:

Here is a link that might be useful: Dramm Sunrise Rain Wand