Mary, I actually broke out in a cold sweat of horror after I made my last flower/plant bed, 32x8 feet. I thought exactly that--What was I THINKING! I have lots of 15-gallon pots on the deck (18/19, 15 of which are the fabric ones) but they're kind of in a row, so sometimes I rig up the water sprinkler close enough to the deck that it gets them, as well as the lawn and bed in front of the deck; and sometimes I just take the hose up to the deck, it's not a far trip. Good luck to you! (And to me, too!)

I'm curious why you need the soaker hose, the drip line should be sufficient, unless, the entire topsoil needs to be soaked or something(PS - I'm new to gardening, apologies in advance if I'm being ignorant). That said, drip irrigation is water wise & much more efficient than hand watering & sprinklers, so definitely a good idea.

As for the drip line itself, assembling one from scratch vs a kit will depend on your needs. Either ways, it's easy to put together. Cost wise, DIY can be a bit cheaper. I went the DIY route with off the shelf stuff from Home Depot cause I literally have a lot of ground to cover. My net cost for 300 feet with 60 emitters was about $100, which included a battery operated timer. I connected the drip line to the timer on the faucet & have not worried about watering ever since. We had a high 90's day in North TX today & all I had to do was push a button on my timer to water out of schedule. Cannot imagine standing with a hose watering our flower beds in the heat. Let me know if I can help with what I learned in my DIY exercise.

We have PVC drip lines in the raised veggie beds, but can't imagine concocting them for the pots (which really only hold flowers. I've watch some DIY stuff, though, and Youtube, and certainly looks doable. Likewise, wouldn't mess with soaker hoses.

Nancy and Me, I think I may not have used the correct term for "soaker". It's 1/4 inch drip-line with pre-drilled emitter holes every six inches. It acts like a soaker. It was only 13 bucks for 100 feet, so it sounded like a reasonable price to avoid having to punch holes in the tubing every six inches and add emitters to each hole. After watching a couple of videos where very large pots didn't get even watering, and had dry spots, I decided that this type of drip-line, encircling the plant, would be a better option. The fabric pots I'm using have 18 and 19 inch diameters, and I didn't think that one little drip emitter would give it even coverage.

With one exception, all the videos I watched showed hooking the system directing to the hose bib at the water source. I'm not going to be able to do that, because I have only one water source, and it is all the way across the drive way. I'm afraid the 1/2 inch tubing would end up damaged, and certainly a lot of tubing would be wasted. I am going to need to run the garden hose from the water source, and then hook the pressure regulator, filter, and back-flow preventer from the garden-hose bib itself, close to where the containers are. I may try a timer, but it would be connected at the water source, and then the hose, and then all the other contraptions that have to be hooked up before you get to the actual 1/2 inch tubing itself.

Luckily, everything looks light and easy to assemble, and it is actually inexpensive. I was surprised.

Nancy, I have seen some of your gardening pics, and I am in awe. You have done such a beautiful job on your gardens.

Me, thank you for your offer to help me with a DIY system, but I'm probably better off, at this time, just using a boxed kit. I only need it for these containers, as I have soaker hoses where I need them for anything in the ground.

I've used the drip irrigation kits from the big box stores and they work just fine. I've even used them for hanging baskets on the wraparound porch. With the very large pots, the more emitters the better, and a timer keeps it simple---plus you can override the timer any time you choose if the plants need extra water. Drip irrigation sounds hard (and some people can make it hard by getting too fancy with what they are doing) but it really is very easy to install and use. It is unfortunate, Mary, that you cannot leave it hooked up all the time. We have three outdoor water sources and I feel like that is not enough on some very hot days. I'd lobby Tim to add a 4th outdoor water source, but I think I know what the answer would be.

Dawn, I think I'll be able to keep it hooked up, but I'll just have to leave the water hose strung across the driveway, up far enough that I won't drive over it. I'll put a y connector on the spicket so that I have 2 water lines available. I'll price the timers.

I think I meant hose splitter...at the spicket, so I can have two hoses.

Turbo, good idea on the pre drilled lines, even coverage should be easy with it. Btw, if you string the hose bib high, there is a possibility of pressure loss, keep that in mind when troubleshooting. And a few hacks that helped - keep the drip line in the hot sun for a while, it becomes easy to flex it in shape and landscape fabric pins are great to hold the drip lines in place. Here's a link - Landscape Fabric Pins . Good luck with your project.

Thank you, Me Is Me. I happen to have some of those landscape fabric pins in my shed. BTW: While I was at Home Depot, believe it not, they had tiny soaker hose tubing (1/4 ") just for this very drip system! It hooks up just like the micro-tubing using those little barbs. I didn't see that online, so now I have both and I can experiment with each. 50 feet for around $6, I think. I did get a timer, too.

We have one of these. there's a short hose between the spigot and this that sits low enough in the grass DH can go over it with the mower. That is attached to the hose stand and my water hose is attached to the spigot on the stand. Personally, I can't leave the water running, because the pressure coming from my house is too high and I blow up hoses. (I bought a regulator, but it's never been installed. As it is, I run 2 hoses at the same time and have good pressure, so I work around it.) Any way, it gives you a spigot at a distance from the house spigot.

Amy, I saw that doo-hickey at Home Depot, and I couldn't figure out how it worked! There were no instructions on it...lol. I'd still have to run the hose across the driveway, though. Having said that, I wouldn't have to climb behind the bushes/hedge to get to the spigot on the side of the house. I tangled with a little copperhead this spring who was hiding among the mulch and leaves, and that's two now in the past two years. I'm afraid of getting behind that shrubbery and being snake-bit. So, I might have to get myself one of those to stay out of the snake den back there. Is there anyplace to get a short hose? I got back there today and installed a nice hose splitter, and attached a new heavier garden hose that I can string across the driveway.

I know I'm behind, but I'm hardening off my tomato plants and getting things ready. I don't want to fill any containers because one of the neighborhood stray cats would just poo in it when I wasn't guarding it. So, I have made 3-32 gallons of potting mix, and I'm planning on trying to use an equal amount of potting mix and whatever bagged compost I have to fill the containers. I think I will put a couple inches of straw in the bottoms of the containers ( I watched Lisa Merrill's video on putting tomatoes in smart pots and that's what she did), and I will also use it on top for mulch. I am also planning on just laying cardboard and straw underneath all the containers for some insulation against the hot concrete.

Next up, I'm going to find a place in the garage and unroll some of that hogwire type fencing and make some tomato cages. That ought to be interesting. I work a little and rest a little. Luckily, the garage is pretty well insulated, so it never gets too hot or too cold in there.

Mary, thanks for the sweet comment on the yard. I did the borders on the big center bed 2 yrs ago. . . then GDW decided to be an ANGEL and put them around 6 of the other seven beds this year. Now I was in awe of THAT!! Sure looks nicer with all those rock walls!

I say doo-hickey too, wonder if the rest of you do! We only have one water faucet outside, but we have a four-pronged hose splitter, which is super handy. GDW has one long long hose going out to the back 40 for the fruit trees; then we have one shorter hose for washing stuff and cars; another one for the front and side yards and/or garden, and one for the back yard. Of course we can't run all four at the same time, and mostly I only run one or at the most, two at a time. Sure is handy though, since we don't have to spend quite so much time dragging hoses.

Well. Sounds like you have the watering problem nearly solved?--and take it EASY!!