Are you irrigating your lawn? If so, it is not a big deal to add some soaker hoses in your beds. They will be part of your irrigation, and your beds will automatically get watered. It helps prevent mildew and rot on your plants because water doesn't directly touch the leaves. Plus, I think you mentioned previously that you plan to retire in this house. When you become elderly you might enjoy not having to manually water!

Drip irrigation system. Best option. Add a timer to the hose bib and the plants water themselves. Dripworks is one company that I have worked with and still order from regularly. You don't even need to run the PVC. You can just run the feeder line to the farthest point and then start targeting each plant with the 1/4" drip lines.

Good luck!

No plans for irrigation.

mrspete any reason you're not planning on an irrigation system?

You can still use soaker hoses. That's what I had at our old house and I had pretty extensive garden beds all around the house. I ran the hoses, used loop stakes to keep them where I wanted them. You still need to run a hose from the bib to the soaker when you want to water (unless you plan to leave them hooked up throughout the season) but if you plan for optimal bib locations, that's easy. I'd leave my soaker hoses in place through the Chicago winter - they're self draining so no worries about freezing.

For plants in the ground the soakers stay out all year. They are screwed in to a diverter on the bib, the diverter also has two hoses attached.

The problem is for pots, baskets, and window boxes. We do not have a bib in the front of the house. Well, we do, but it's way at the back of the garage. Hard to get to, and, when it drips, well, it's surrounded by drywall. So we never use it. What do instead for the front yard water needs is this: remember that diverter I mentioned with a soaker and two hoses? Well, one hose wraps around the house and attaches to another hose cart behind the bushes in the front of the house. The hose wrapped up on that cart is for the sprinkler and for filling the front hanging baskets.

I'd much rather have a bib. If/when we remodel the kitchen, I will have them add a bib on the other side of the sink, or maybe behind the guest bath on the side of the house.

Drip irrigation including soakers is not the traditional irrigation system for the lawn. They can be retrofitted easily and modifications made simply. The link I posted to drip works has a guide about drip irrigation.

Good luck!

Yes, I ought to plan to have multiple heads on the hose bib so the soaker hose can stay plugged in all the time.

That works if your garden beds don't have lawn between them and the hose bib location. I had large beds with swaths of lawn separating them from the water source - never again! But then, I don't see lawn in my future either and I'm looking forward to being off that merry-go-round!

You can just run a line out to the other side of the yard and have a spigot there to connect hoses, no? We have 4 of these located around the perimeter of the yard.

I would think an extra hose bib in a new build would be less than $300. I got one with my addition, and made it a hot and cold bib. They also have frost free bib's now, so they require no protection in winter. Somehow the valve closes on them providing protection.

I'm a manic gardener...not the safe for the suburbs sort, but one for whom gardening means an abundances of heirloom roses, flowering trees, luscious shrubs and foliage perennials. With various beds spread out over the civilized acre of our property, dragging hoses becomes exhausting, especially come August. When it comes to watering, one size does not fit all, so I would never have a drip irrigation system, and soaker hoses have their limitations.

The best answer around here is multiple spigots and quick hose connectors, allowing shorter hoses that can be plugged and unplugged without turning off the spigot and without [as much] danger of dragging unwieldy hoses over plants.

The other answer, which I follow with our hard-to-reach driveway garden, is to use native plants. Fortunately, our driveway is lined with tall firs and vine maples, which makes it perfect for northwest shade-loving natives. Many, such as Mahonia (Oregon grape) and gaultheria, were already in place, and I've just added a number of evergreen huckleberries, which favor the deep shade. I have many, many more plants to add, but it is already looking like a forest trail. Native plants tend to accept your seasonal weather conditions, feast or famine, deluge or draught.

Automatic Sprinkler system with lots of zones, timers and different methods of delivering the water depending on the plantings ( high pressure spray for grass, drip for vegetable garden, soaker style for flower beds, single drip snaked through bottom of decorative pots in front of house, etc, etc.).

Sbkh,

i have 35 OGRs in my yard. I only use a drip irrigation system with shrublers. They allow me to customize the water deliver for each rose bush. All this is run off a timer with a rain sensor attached to a hose bib. As my plants get larger, I can increase the water flow to it by adjusting the head of the shrublers. I am not sure if you are familiar with drip irrigation systems but they are more than just soaker hoses. Take a look at the drip works website I posted above. There are a few other companies like Gardena and Mister that make systems. My drip irrigation system traverse a lot of lawn to reach planting islands in the middle of the lawn.

Drip irrigation sprayers

Good luck!

homepro01 -- You're correct that I'm not up-to-speed on the specifics of drip irrigation. I left out an important factor -- while I dislike dragging long hoses around, I actually enjoy hand-watering. I take my mug of coffee, a dog or two, and occasionally one of our miniature horses for an early morning tour of the garden.

Good to know there's another old rose lover on here!

I wish I had added at least one more hose bib. We have two; one in front, one in the back. I should have put two in the front. BTW- Hose bibs should be the 'freeze-proof' type, and then you don't have to worry about them freezing in the winter.

The soaker hose doesn't have to be connected directly to the hose bib. We use one in a raised bed- some 200' from the house! Regular hose gets the water there. I'd really like to run some underground plumbing and a hydrant to get closer to those beds!

One more thing I wish I'd done- They make hose bibs for hot and cold water. Would have been nice for washing the car in the cooler months. Maybe someday I'll do the work and run water for another front hose bib, with hot and cold water!

sbkh,

"while I dislike dragging long hoses around, I actually enjoy hand-watering" I am sure there are therapy sessions for this:-) You can always set your alarm to watch the drip irrigation work.

I would love a hydrant at the far away points but the last cost I received was very high. The freeze proof and hot and cold water bibs are great ideas and not very expensive when you do them in the building process.

Good luck!

I like soaker hoses too. I have on occasion forgotten to turn them off until I see a rivulet running down the front walk, so now I think I'll use the timer on my phone to remind me.

Hanging baskets and urns tend to dry out fast and die on me. This year I'm going to try a tip I read to use a diaper in the urn or basket (line the urn with the diaper, then fill with the dirt and plants) to help retain moisture.

We have 3 outdoor spigots (front, back, and side) and I use them all. Were I to do it again, I'd set up one with both hot and cold water so I could give the dog a bath outside. Just a thought if you're a dog person.

Last summer I saw a small lake forming under our neighbors' fence, and 6 feet into our yard. I called the house, teen son answered, and the following exchange ensued:

"do you guys have a hose on? because..."

"(gasp)"

hang up

door slam

water off

I rented a trencher for a day and ran several water lines to various parts of our yard. Way better than running 250 ft of hose to get to the orchard, and plastic water pipe is less expensive than a good hose. With a frost-proof hydrants you can have water where you need it with no worries about freezing in the winter. I did some frost-proof, others I just blow out with an air compressor in the fall.

While you've got the trencher you can also run power to a few remote places around the property, also much handier than hundreds of feet of extension cord.

Best investment I ever made was drip irrigation for the hanging baskets on the porch-- they actually lived once it was in place! Rather than a "pro" system (very difficult to get a permit for in our town now with watering restrictions) I use the timers that connect to a hose bibb leading to the drip tubing. Have a couple now for the apple trees and for the flowers and they work great for a minimal investment.

Simplest, best and most water saving for shrubs, planter beds and the like: drip irrigation system with adjustable timer. Set it. Forget it! Get on with life.

i have big porches also but i don't like watering hanging pots from above i keep 3 plastic tubs and a couple of times a week i put water in them and set my hanging pots in them to soak for a couple of hours my plants are much happier dh also put in extra hose bibs around the yard and i use dripper systems off of those because i have raised beds and beds that require more water than others we have had zoned irrigation systems in the past, but are wondering if we really need one here we have almost 4 acres and i have trouble seeing all that area irrigated and we have 35 live oak trees with lots of roots and watering those could actually be detrimental my biggest problem right now is figuring out how to water all these hanging pots and plants when we are traveling.........beds on timers are not a problem, but hanging pots are

I too suggest soaker hoses in all the flower beds- I love them, I have mine all "tied" together as a station in the sprinkler settings. I've never had a problem digging around them when I work on flowerbeds; now and then I've dug up and reset if I'm doing the WHOLE bed over again.

zippity,

You can add on to your existing drip irrigation system. Dripdepot has a system for hanging baskets. There is also a video of the installation.

Good luck!

mrspete, what about selecting flowers that don't require supplemental water after establishment? I ditched the hoses and irrigation all together.

The world of conifers and drought tolerant perennials makes life easier.