DIY Watering System for Gardens – Easy & Inexpensive
Would you love to have an automatic watering system for gardens that doesn’t cost a lot? With this tutorial you CAN easily build your own system using simple PVC parts, soaker hoses, and basic DIY skills! Get all the steps to create an easy, inexpensive automatic irrigation system for gardens with both raised beds and regular beds. You will LOVE not having to worry about watering all the time!
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One thing I longed for in our previous vegetable gardens was an automatic watering system, one that didn’t require dragging hoses everywhere, looked good, and could be almost a set-it-and-forget-it thing.
I’ve always used soaker hoses in the beds themselves, both for efficient watering at the roots and to minimize weeds in unplanted areas, but I had to attach the main hoses to the soakers.
I cannot tell you how many times Brian and I would be laying in bed and I’d be thinking, “Did I turn the water off?” Then we’d hear the tell-tale tick of the well pump and one of us would have to go out and turn it off (I’m going to let you imagine what that conversation was like…).
Unfortunately, we didn’t think about a watering system for the garden as we were building raised beds, laying gravel paths, and building fences. And then it seemed too much to tear it all up to install irrigation.
So I hauled hoses around the large garden, hooking and unhooking on a timer I set in the house – except when I’d forget.
And when we’d leave for vacation the complicated system of dragging hoses, waiting a few hours, and dragging more around wasn’t something I could ask anyone to do.
And the late-night water check really got old after a few years.
We knew we didn’t want that to be an issue with our farmhouse’s new vegetable garden. The answer? Plan an automatic watering system at the same time we were building the foundation of our new low-maintenance, raised bed garden.
The key elements of this garden watering system needed to be:
- Simple to build and set up
- Simple to use
- Inexpensive
- Easy to repair when needed
- Adjustable (able to regulate which beds were watered or not)
- Look good and not be too obtrusive
Which is why I’m excited to share (beyond excited?) the simple irrigation system we built using basic PVC pipe pieces and tools, easy-to-find watering supplies, normal DIY skills and a couple weekends of time that has already made gardening SO much easier.
Brian and I are sharing all the steps (including a video) so you can replicate this in your garden, too. And if it’s smaller than ours, it will take even less time and money!
First Steps to a DIY Watering System
You need to complete two important steps before you can gather your supplies and start your project in order to know how much to purchase.
STEP 1: Map Out Garden Space
The first step is to measure your garden and draw a rough map of it using the measurements.
TIP: Hopefully, you’ll already have done this as part of starting a vegetable garden the easy way and you can pull it from your free Garden Notebook Journal.
STEP 2: Plan Water Lines
Diagram where you want your water lines to go based on your garden set-up, like you can see in our plan above.
For ours, we wanted a main line that fed an arm with a soaker hose attached to each bed. Really simple.
TIP: Think about your property’s water pressure and how long a run it will support. You can run as many main lines as you want and use hose splitters or timers with double, triple, or quadruple hose connectors if you need to keep the runs shorter.
TIP From a Reader: “To factor the rate of water required for the system and the amount of water available from your water source you can calculate by timing how long it takes to fill a 3 or 5 gallon bucket then multiplying by a factor to determine how many gallons per hour of water you have. (Easy to Google to get info). This will tell you how much total gallons per hour of water you have available. Then add up your planned watering system rates used by soaker hoses, drip emitters, etc. (these are shown on the item packaging). Most of the time you should have plenty of water. But nice to be on the safe side.”
Step 3: Gather Supplies (with Printable Checklist)
The main things you’ll need are:
- PVC pipe, junctions and elbows
- PVC pipe cutter
- PVC primer and glue
- Water timer (pictured is this Dual Electronic Water Timer)
- Anti-Siphon Backflow Preventer Valve (what we used) – feel free to use a 4-in-1 type faucet adapter that includes a pressure reducer and filter if you’d like. Pressure reducers are more important with drip irrigation since the emitters can be blown out of the tubing without it – we actually want the pressure using soaker hoses so the water goes to the furthest lines. However, if your pressure is high, you may want to use a faucet valve with a reducer.
- Soaker hoses: Update- I’ve been using these flat soakers now as they are easier to lay and seem to water better – the rubber soakers lose their ability to seep water over time, almost like the rubber expanded to cover the holes? However, they can’t be cut and split into smaller lengths so for smaller beds and using to wrap around trees or shrubs, we still use rubber 5/8″ soaker hoses that we can cut to size.
- On/off hose valves
- Hose male and female ends
- Hose end caps
Grab your plan to figure out the length of plastic PVC piping and number of parts you will need in this order to cover all your bases:
- Starting at your water source, calculate a rough estimate of how many feet of 3/4-inch PVC pipe it will take.
- Write that total down on a piece of paper – or just use the printable shopping list provided below! We needed about 80 feet for ours.
- Again starting at your water source, add up all the PVC fittings you’ll need.
- Total up right angle turns, 3-way “T” junctions, 4-way cross junctions – this is where your map will be most used.
- You’ll need right angle threaded end pieces at the top of your beds to connect the standard on/off hose valves to the plastic piping. Add the number you need to your list.
- Finally, add up the number of on/off valves you’ll need. These will allow you to send water to only the beds you want.
We’ve made the shopping part really easy for you with the free printable list below that also includes other supplies you’ll need like tools and sand:
Automatic Watering System Supplies Checklist
Simply click the above image or link, download to your computer, print and fill in (or cross off items you already have) the list and go shopping at your nearest home store!
DIY Watering System Video
This video provides details for all the steps to create your system – use along with the tutorial below to help you build a watering system in your own garden.
How to Build A Watering System for Gardens: Step-by-Step
Step 1: Dig Trenches for the PVC pipe
Before digging, remember to check for any water and electrical lines and adjust your planed route if needed. Next stretch a line a foot or two above where your main trench should go. This will help you dig in a straight line.
Using an adz or pick, dig your main trench:
It should be 3 to 4 inches deep, so you may need to use a narrow spade or other tool to get it to that depth. It doesn’t need to be very wide. (Note: you should blow out the line at the end of every season to remove water before freezing; also if you live in areas where the ground freezes, you may want to lay your pipe deeper.)
Now dig the side trenches based on your plan.
We wanted our feeder pipes to be positioned at one of the corners of the beds so that the soaker hoses could more easily be circled in the bed (versus starting in the middle of a bed). This is what I’d recommend if you’re doing beds like ours – if they’re bigger, adjust as you see fit.
Step 2: Toss some sand into the bottom of your trench
This is especially important if you’re laying the pipe in a rocky area like ours where a sharp rock could eventually poke a hole in your line.
3. Assemble & Lay the PVC Pipe
We screwed a wood block below our spigot so there would be something sturdy for the pipe to attach to.
Starting at the spigot, we left a little piece going up so that we could come back and do the attachment to the water last.
The assembly process is pretty simple – you cut the pieces as you go and glue in place:
- Set a piece of pipe in your trench and with a pencil mark where to cut it. The pipe slides about an inch into the fittings, so allow for that. Note: In addition to being tough, PVC is flexible, so you don’t have to be absolutely perfect in your measurements. However, you do want to be as accurate as possible.
- Put the purple primer on both parts to be attached. This will dry right away.
- Then smear the glue on the two parts to be attached. This will also dry right away so quickly attach them, sliding them completely together, and twisting a little if they need aligning.
That’s it. The beginning of your garden watering system is in place and you’re ready for the next piece. Continue marking, cutting, priming and gluing all down your proposed line.
TIP #1: Lay your pieces to be glued on a little patch of cardboard or wood, so you don’t get sand or dirt sticking to the primer.
TIP #2: Stick a little wad of paper or cloth into the end of the pipe waiting to be glued. This will keep sand, dirt, and rocks from getting into your system.
Raised Bed Feeder Pipes
Attach the corners and junctions going off the main line and up beds in the same way. When attaching a side line to one of your beds, first glue on the right angle turn that will go up the side of the bed and then attach it to the main line.
Cut a piece to go up the side of the bed and glue it to the right angle turn. Then glue a threaded right angle to that and you’ve got your raised bed feeder pipe set.
As soon as you’ve finished a pipe going into a bed, attach it to the side of the bed to hold it firm with a metal u-bracket, screws and a drill. This will protect the pieces you’ve just glued from breaking apart as you continue adding pipe.
You can see in the photo above that we placed these brackets towards the top of the beds to provide the most stability when turning hose valves on and off.
TIP: If you have a bed that can’t be screwed into, like our round rock bed above, use a piece of rebar right next to the bed to attach your pipe to.
Step 4: Attach On/Off Valves
Once all the PVC pieces are glued and secured in place along your lines and up your beds, screw on the on/off valves and turn them all to the off.
We’re almost done, but don’t bury your pipe yet. You need to see if it leaks.
Step 5: Connect Your Pipes to Water Timer & Spigot
Back at the water source, connect your watering timer to the spigot. Connect the backflow control valve to the outflow on the timer.
Now you can see how much length it will take to connect your PVC pipe to the timer/water source. We made the final connection using a mini-hose found at the hardware store.
Step 6: Set Timer & Test for Leaks
With your watering system all hooked up, set the timer to the watering frequency and time you’d like. For the best results, you’ll want to water your beds longer and less frequent for a deep watering that encourages deep root growth. My suggestion is:
- 3-4 hours soaking (Depending on the amount that comes out of your hoses – more beds = less flow, so you’ll need a good 3-4 hour soak, fewer beds will only need 2 hours). Watch how it waters in the first day and adjust as needed.
- 5-7 day frequency (Depending on weather – in mild warm weather once a week is fine, up to every 3-4 days in the hottest weather, again monitoring your plants.)
To test your watering system:
- Select the faucet button on your watering timer and choose 5 minutes or so to bypass your set up and water will begin flowing.
- Inspect your pipes for leaks.
- Go to each valve and turn it on and off just to make sure water is coming out.
Step 7. Adjust Water Line Pipes & Cover
Once everything checks out leak-wise, make sure your pipe is deep enough in the ground. It should be a little below ground level. You can dig out a little under any sections that need it.
Now you can cover the PVC pipe water line with sand up to ground level.
Sand is the best for this, since it won’t hold any rock to puncture the pipe and it’s easy to get though in the future if a repair needs to be made. If you have fine dirt, you can also use that, though sand is usually recommended.
Step 8: Lay Path Material
Now you can add your path material, which hopefully is a weed control layer, over the top of the sand.
For this garden we are using cardboard and wood chips on the paths for the easiest maintenance (in my past two gardens, gravel has just grown a lot of weeds since it’s hard to keep dirt and compost out of it in a vegetable garden).
The gravel you can see in the pictures was already in place when we bought the property and laid with no plastic or weed block underneath and so has a ton of weeds already. I’m just layering cardboard and the chips right over the top, which I’ll refresh each year as needed.
UPDATE: We created a video to show how to lay the cardboard and wood chips and the difference between free and purchased chips. CLICK HERE to watch.
Step 9: Attach Soaker Hoses, Cutting if Needed
Finally, attach the soaker hoses to the on-off valves for each raised bed. Snake the hose around the perimeter of the bed and then towards the center.
You can adjust more as you see the water outline the first time you water.
TIP: Before starting your system, lay out all your soaker hoses in the sun for a few days so that they are easier to maneuver around the beds.
Cutting 50-foot Soaker Hoses
We had a mixture of 25-foot and 50-foot soaker hoses and our beds need only 25-foot lengths. To get 25-foot length soakers for our 8-foot beds out of the 50-foot soaker hoses we had, we cut them in half and used a male or female repair kit as needed for the cut ends.
Do this if you can’t find 25-foot soakers and your beds are 10-feet long or less (you may want to use the 50-ft length in longer beds).
You’ll need male and female garden hose repair menders – here is a set of male and female ends.
UPDATE: We shot another video sharing how to cut soaker hoses to size plus tips – CLICK HERE to watch.
Step 10: Run Your Completed Garden Watering System
Use the faucet button to bypass the timer and run your system again for a few minutes or longer, checking all the soakers and valves.
We needed to tighten some and adjust some of our repairs. This is also when you can arrange your soaker hoses as you see how the water is running.
Why use soaker hoses with shut-off valves?
One of the reasons I wanted this easy garden watering system instead of a typical drip system is to quickly adjust the flow to each bed or turn it completely off if I wanted.
I also like hoses versus drip because it waters most of the bed, not just at the base of the plants I have planted that year, allowing me to rotate the crops in the beds easily.
When would I want turn off the water to a bed?
Obviously when there’s nothing planted, but also when the tomatoes are ripening and the plants need less water.
I think this will also be handy when I’ve got a newly planted bed for fall and it needs more – I can shut off other beds and use the faucet button to bypass the timer and water every few days while the seeds get established.
How do you blow out or clear the water lines to prepare for winter?
We simply unhook the hoses and let the pipes drain. We don’t get hard freezes for long here so that’s sufficient for us. For places with deeper winters, using a compressor to blow the water out would make sure no water was left in the system.
We are LOVING this system and have been using it successfully for many years now!
We put it to the test after installing by leaving on a two week vacation and not only did the plants grow and thrive, our daughter was ecstatic to be relieved of watering the garden while she house sat.
It’s not just good for the plants and you, it can be good for your relationships, too, ha!
Reader Experiences
Initially, I was going to do permanent PVC drip lines, drill a million holes and run hoses all over the place until I saw your post. Genius! My OCD would not allow me to leave the exposed pipes white, so I did a quick coat of automotive primer and copper spray paint. It looks amazing. Easy. Nothing leaked!! Thank you for sharing your great idea. -Teresa
My grandson (11) and I (61) installed this ourselves. I have it attached to 7 rows, 3 beds and 2 small fruit trees in boxes. It will be so much easier than dragging hoses to attach to the existing drip lines. Thank you for the clear and easy installation instructions, video and supply list. -Nanabee
Thank you. My grandson and I watched the video. It is taken us a few days to get the trench prepped in between other things and the heat, but I appreciate the simplicity to a job that was intimidating me. My garden is more haphazard and overgrown than yours, but your system is so easy to adapt as needed. It sure will be nice not to be dragging a hose around and hooking and unhooking it to water throughout the summer! -Barbara
NEW: printable watering system steps
Please leave a rating and review if you’ve used this tutorial for your own system – I’d really appreciate it!
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DIY Watering System for Gardens Tutorial
Tools
- shovel
- adz digger
- Measuring Tape
- drill and screws
Materials
- garden diagram with measurements
- PVC pipe, junctions and elbows
- PVC pipe cutter
- PVC primer and glue
- Water timer
- Anti-siphon backflow preventer or 4-in-1 faucet adapter
- Soaker hoses flat cloth-type soakers for larger beds and/or 5/8" soaker hoses that can be cut to size
- On/off hose valves
- Metal u-shape brackets
- Hose male and female ends
- Hose end caps
- Sand
Instructions
Planning
- The first step is to measure your garden and draw a rough map of it using the measurements.
- Diagram where you want your water lines to go based on your garden set-up, like you can see in our plan above.
- Once you have your garden plan, figure out the length of plastic PVC piping and number of parts you will need and make a list to shop for your supplies using the printable shopping list.
Building
- Dig trenches 3-4″ deep for the PVC pipe, remembering to check for any water and electrical lines and adjust your planed route if needed. (Note: you may want to have deeper trenches if you live in an area where the ground freezes.)
- Add sand to bottom of trenches.
- Assemble and lay PVC pipe lines, cutting and gluing as you progress: Set a piece of pipe in your trench and with a pencil mark where to cut it (the pipe slides about an inch into the fittings, so allow for that) and put the purple primer on both parts to be attached – it will dry right away. Then smear the glue on the two parts to be attached. This will also dry right away so quickly attach them, sliding them completely together, and twisting a little if they need aligning.
- Continue marking, cutting, priming and gluing all down your proposed line. TIP #1: Lay your pieces to be glued on a little patch of cardboard or wood, so you don’t get sand or dirt sticking to the primer. TIP #2: Stick a little wad of paper or cloth into the end of the pipe waiting to be glued. This will keep sand, dirt, and rocks from getting into your system.
- For any raised bed feeder pipes: When attaching a side line to one of your beds, first glue on the right angle turn that will go up the side of the bed and then attach it to the main line. Cut a piece to go up the side of the bed and glue it to the right angle turn. Then glue a threaded right angle to that and you’ve got your raised bed feeder pipe set. As soon as you’ve finished a pipe going into a bed, attach it to the side of the bed to hold it firm with a metal u-bracket, screws and a drill. This will protect the pieces you’ve just glued from breaking apart as you continue adding pipe. TIP #1: placed the u-brackets towards the top of the beds to provide the most stability when turning hose valves on and off. TIP #2: If you have a bed that can’t be screwed into, like our round rock bed above, use a piece of rebar right next to the bed to attach your pipe to.
- Attach on-off hose valves to each threaded elbow and turn to the off setting so you can test your pipe lines.
- Back at the water source, connect your watering timer to the spigot. Connect the backflow control valve to the outflow on the timer. Now you can see how much length it will take to connect your PVC pipe to the timer/water source. Make the final connection using a mini-hose you can find at a hardware store.
- Set timer and test for leaks. Set timer for 3-4 hours soaking on a 5-7 day interval for normal weather, 3-5 days in hottest weather. Test the system by selecting the faucet button on your watering timer and choose 5 minutes or so to bypass your set up and water will begin flowing. Inspect your pipes for leaks. Go to each valve and turn it on and off just to make sure water is coming out.
- Once everything checks out leak-wise, make sure your pipe is deep enough in the ground. It should be a little below ground level. You can dig out a little under any sections that need it.
- Cover the PVC pipe water line with sand up to ground level.
- Lay the path material of choice in your garden. Examples include: heavy duty landscape fabric and gravel (recommended for more permanent paths in flower gardens, etc.) or cardboard and wood chips (recommended for veggie gardens).
- Attach soaker hoses, cutting any as needed and using the male-female hose repair kits and hose end caps to create shorter hoses.
- Use the faucet button to bypass the timer and run your system again for a few minutes or longer, checking all the soakers and valves. You may need to tighten some connections and adjust some of of the hose repairs. This is also when you can arrange your soaker hoses as you see how the water is running.
Notes
We unhooked the hoses and just let the pipe drain. We don’t get hard freezes for long here so that’s sufficient for us. For places with deeper winters, using a compressor to blow the water out would make sure no water was left in the system.
This article has been updated – it was originally published in 2019.
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Thank you for your clear instructions! I will be doing this for my raised bed garden this year. Do you still prefer the flat soaker hoses to round in the boxes? also can you use garden hose instead of PVC pipe, which is quite expensive. I have a lot of garden hose….
In your example do you have enough water flow to fill to the very end?
there are a lot of beds. I have 10 beds: 2 opposite rows of 5 beds 3′ x 10′
I have found the flat fabric soakers water better and the newer round, rubber hoses (are they making them different now??), have stopped working for me around midsummer when it gets hot. The reason to use PVC is for longevity – it’s a lot of work to go through for a regluar garden hose to puncture or start leaking after a few years. It’s totally up to you, though. Yes, the far beds on a line don’t get as much as the closest beds. I find that if I turn the closer beds down lower, it helps to even out the flow.
I want to do this but my bed are 24 in tall do you think this will work for them.
Sure, they can be any height – just cut longer pvc pipes to go up the beds. If you’re worried about water flow, you can keep the runs shorter – say only 3 beds per run.
I have been researching trying to figure out what type of watering system to install in my garden and so far this looks like the best option for me because, like you, I rotate the things in my raised beds. I have noticed in drip irrigation, that a pressure regulator is needed, do I need a pressure regulator for soaker hoses as well? Thank you!
I hope this does work for you! You may need a regulator depending on your water flow and if the water comes from your house. Ours is a separate water line so we didn’t need it. Also, the thing with soakers and the on-off switches for each bed is that you kind of regulate them yourself.
Initially, I was going to do permanent PVC drip lines, drill a million holes and run hoses all over the place until I saw your post. Genius! And I already had some soaker hoses, so I only needed a few more to complete all my beds. Took me about a day and a half by myself (60 year old lady😉)including digging ditches. Once I ran over the layout a hundred times in my head, and once on paper, I just cut and glued. I did not use sand since my soil is not at all rocky and I have buried a lot of waterline with no problems. My OCD would not allow me to leave the exposed pipes white, so I did a quick coat of automotive primer and copper spray paint. It looks amazing. Easy. Nothing leaked!! Thank you for sharing your great idea.
Yay, you – way to go!! I’m so glad this fit your needs and looks so great (way better than PVC drips, right?).
Im curious for the max 100-150′ length the soaker hose can operate efficiently would that include all the connections currently running off a system like this or only the runs from each individual PVC hose connector, (I.E if i have 4 beds with 65 feet of soaker hose each could I run all 4 at the same time each bed with its own PVC connector and be considered under the max soaker hose run)
I would say yes, because that only counts from the soaker losing water from the hose – the PVC doesn’t lose pressure not matter how long it is (if I’m understanding your question?).
My grandson (11) and I (61) installed this ourselves. I have it attached to 7 rows, 3 beds and 2 small fruit trees in boxes. It will be so much easier than dragging hoses to attach to the existing drip lines. Thank you for the clear and easy installation instructions, video and supply list. A couple of tips: Measure and check your supply needs a few times. Our local supply store had to order a couple of parts (shut off valves) which took a few days. Do not put sand in trench until right before you are ready to bury the pipe, We have uneven, rocky ground and kept kicking rocks back in trench when we were walking back and forth. A second set of hands makes things go easier. We tested, then buried the line today. All works great. We did need a double female connector where small hose attached to existing shut off. Thank you for making this simple… it was hard work (hot and rocky / clay soil and uneven ground), but so worth it! Our overall main pipe was about 45′ in length with tributaries to each bed / row.
I love that you did this with your grandson – that is so awesome! And thank you so much for the feedback and tips, I’m so glad it worked well for you!
Thank you. My grandson and I watched the video. It is taken us a few days to get the trench prepped in between other things and the heat, but I appreciate the simplicity to a job that was intimidating me. I have a mixture of raised beds and rows of berries and veggies, as well as a couple of pomegranate trees in large boxes here in inland, Northern California. I will have to stick in a couple of pieces of rebar and add some wood braces for the concrete block beds, but not a problem. My garden is more haphazard and overgrown than yours, but your system is so easy to adapt as needed. Our longest length is about 48′. I currently have soaker or drip lines set up on the rows and am adding soakers to the beds. It sure will be nice not to be dragging a hose around and hooking and unhooking it to water throughout the summer!
Yes – it’s such a great thing to not worry as much about watering! I’m so glad this was helpful for you!
We just did a 16 bed raised garden and next is the watering part. My wife found your set up and want to do the same, THANKS! Where did you get the flow control valve that is connected to the timer please? Also, anything you would improve on now by chance or is it still running great?
Thanks so much!
I’m so glad this is helpful for you, Mike – it’s one of the best things we did for our garden!
I’m having a hard time finding a one-way flow control valve like we got on Amazon – it’s a very simple valve that was in the garden section that basically prevents back flow. We didn’t need any other type of control since the garden is using a separate water system from our house (our property had another home on it that was removed and we use that system). You might need to do some research to find what would work best for your set up.
As far as improvements, everything is working well. I’ve just been disappointed with the longevity of the timers, sadly. I’ve tried three different brands and they start going faulty after only a season/season in a half (usually by running everyday instead of keeping the schedule). Sigh. Still worth it to me to not have to worry about watering, though!!
I can’t find a button to pin this to Pinterest. Am I missing something?
If you hover over the lead or last photos (Pinterest friendly) a purple “P” button will appear that you can use to pin – I’ve tried 2 browsers and see it, can you?
I’m looking for a raised bed system for a sloped 10 foot width by 30 foot length (600 sq ft.) section of my backyard. On the bottom I have very large 2 to 300 pound boulders (one row) however using rock worries me for the slope further up and having to hire it out unless I used 50 lb rocks and stacked, However I’m worried that they could come loose and pose a safety risk.
Would you advise using typical wood structure or possibly manufactured retaining wall concrete material?
I’m thinking cosmetic as well as functionality.
Appreciate any insight and suggestions.
Love the found site since I am new to gardening and live in Portland Oregon!
Jerry
I’m glad you found the site, too, Jerry – I hope you find useful gardening tips!
As for your question, I’m not a landscape designer (or do you need an engineer?), so I can’t say from experience. But I would advise not using wood for anything you want to last (and it sounds like retaining walls are sort of permanent, right?). I would definitely use concrete blocks for what you’re describing. I agree that rocks may not be the best for how you want to use the area.
Hope that helps!
Hi there!
I planning out my watering system for next spring and I’m debating between a soaker hose and a drip system. This is a great tutorial/guide that I’ll be using to set up the skeleton of my system, regardless of the final water delivery approach.
My question is: what about weeding? Without mulching, wouldn’t soaker hose encourage a lot more weeds that drip? Have you noticed any excessive issues with weeds?
Thanks again for the thoughtful post and your time in consideration of my questions!
I use raised beds and switch up the planting every year, so putting drips only to plants is not efficient for me. I haven’t noticed more weeds, though I guess there is some along the soaker. I use paper and mulch where I can.
This is a great idea! What size soaker hose did you use? 5/8″?
Thank you!
It’s been my favorite thing in the garden we’ve done! I like to find the biggest soakers we can find, so yes – 5/8″ (though it seems harder to find, most seem to be 1/2″ now). I still look for the bigger hose.
Amazon has 50 ft of 5/8 soaker for $30.Rocky Mountain goods brand
Thanks!
This looks great! Just curious. How do you blow out or clear the water lines to prepare for winter?
We unhooked the hoses and just let the pipe drain. We don’t get hard freezes for long here so that’s sufficient for us. For places with deeper winters, using a compressor to blow the water out would make sure no water was left in the system.
Great post, Jami! I went through the same process this spring, with my new raised beds we inherited from our neighbors. I used drip lines, but I like your system. Wish the post timing had been different…would have saved me a lot of guessing on how to make it work! After reading your post I may consider a hybrid, running PVC from the faucet to the beds, and keeping the drip lines I already invested in. I glean something useful from your newsletter each week, thanks!
I’m glad this was helpful – but sorry that it was too late for you, I guess we both were working on ours at the same time. 🙂 Hopefully that hybrid system could work for you!
I like your watering process. We have similar but all pvc with drilled holes. I am not happy with it, I looked at the Gilmour hoses and saw the warning about ‘cancer’. Wondering if this might affect the vegetables.
I can’t find that warning on the soaker hose page – where did you see that, Arvella? I’m a big fan of soaker hoses for watering – I found this article that seems balanced on the issue: https://grist.org/living/is-it-safe-to-use-a-soaker-hose-in-my-veggie-garden/
How come it is not attached to a water collection vessel (water butt)?
I don’t know what that is, Heather, could you explain more? This is simply attached to our hose bib. It’s basically like watering with a hose, just extended with the PVC pipes to water with multiple hoses.