Usually, I just hand water. But, I am going to be out of the state for a week coming to Texas, and am trying to figure out a relatively inexpensive way to irrigate it. I don't want to use sprinklers, as this causes my tomatoes and other select vegetables to get fungal diseases.

I thought about using PVC, but I really need the lines to be more flexible Any thoughts? Home Depot only has their drip irrigation stuff online, and I don't know that the stuff they have at Lowe's would work for my situation. I have a bout a 1500 square-foot garden with about 15 rows

Not sure where you are but all the Home Depot's in Texas have large selection of drip irrigation products. I have used drip irrigation on my fruit trees. Bought timers, tubing, large selection of emitters. Of course that doesn't help you if not available where you live

F4GIB71 said:

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Not sure where you are but all the Home Depot's in Texas have large selection of drip irrigation products. I have used drip irrigation on my fruit trees. Bought timers, tubing, large selection of emitters. Of course that doesn't help you if not available where you live

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Yes, they only have it available online here in Tennessee. Not in the store. And, I don't really want to wait for something.

Do you currently have a zone designated to your flower bed? If so, run " T" from there. That's what I did. I bought a 100' roll of flex tubing irrigation pipe. Plumbed it to my existing flowerbed and ran it down the side of my house to the backyard garden. From there I made 2 zones for my year round garden and then a separate one for the spring garden. I then plumbed smaller hose (they sell for the mini sprinklers and drip emitters) and ran a line and drip emitter to every tomato plant and other plants in the garden. I'd run it on my designated flower bed zone. That way, if I were to get called out for watering on non watering dates, I can say I was only irrigating my plants and not entire lawn. Flowerbeds can be irrigated at any time. Only lawns have designated dates on my town. For my okra, I installed the mini sprinkler. They sit 6-10" above ground and can water and area from 6" to 2'. HTH.

I bet amazon might offer the same. And if you do the prime stuff, you'd get it quick

Soaker hoses and a faucet timer. You get get it all on Amazon or your local home & garden store. My dad has used that setup for some of his garden for years.

Find the nearest Ewing irrigation supply to you, and go in and talk to them. They have a variety of drip products and are usually very helpful in helping solve problems and work with you to find the right products for your situation. I've used them for commercial and residential for the past 15 years and had nothing but good experience with them.

Yep I used a soaker hose very easy and cheap.

There's not a Ewing Irrigation supply within 2 hours of me. I'll see what the local co-op has. I'm in East TN.

Call ATS Irrigation in Brenham and tell them what you want to do. Roger Schultz is class of 78 and who I used to get mu drip irrigation supplies from.

Do you have a Lowe's near you? If so, they seem to carry everything you need in store at a couple of stores in far eastern TN (Johnson City area)

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Melnor-HydroLogic-4-Zone-Timer/1000551167

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Mister-Landscaper-Drip-Irrigation-Landscape-Kit/1256539

Sorry, looks like there is one in Memphis but I wasnt sure of your location. Netafim is the product I most commonly use so maybe there is someone closer to you that can lend more assistance with respect to that company. I actually did a garden for someone that allowed them to irrigate and then remove whenever they needed to change plants out or till and prep the soil.

If you don't want to do the drip systems, You could also just manifold soaker hoses to run down each row and use splitters from each of the "zone" outlets on that timer. You can just set each zone to run consecutively and soak a few rows at a time.

Just ran into a similar issue with a bunch of trees I planted. Saw where soaker hoses lose pressure on longer runs so I bought 300' of poly tubing and mister heads from Lowes to build my own irrigation system. Works like a champ. Read that you could put up to 50 misters on a 100' stretch so I'd imagine this would work well in a garden. Plus its flexible so you could snake it up and down rows. Throw a timer on it and call it a day

I run a Mister Landscaper system in my tubs. Poly running down the fence and drippers in each tub. I have a Y-Connecter on my hose bib, one outlet is my regular hose and the other connects to a PVC line that I buried in the yard over to the garden.

The pipe stub ups and converts to the poly, then goes through the regulator (Mister Landscaper 25PSI) and into an automatic fertilizer injector (Add-it 1/1/2 quart).

It works great, the only thing is to remember to turn it off if it rains a bunch.

JKAG10 said:

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Just ran into a similar issue with a bunch of trees I planted. Saw where soaker hoses lose pressure on longer runs so I bought 300' of poly tubing and mister heads from Lowes to build my own irrigation system. Works like a champ. Read that you could put up to 50 misters on a 100' stretch so I'd imagine this would work well in a garden. Plus its flexible so you could snake it up and down rows. Throw a timer on it and call it a day

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This is probably why I'll do. I tried soaker hoses before and my rows were too long and lost pressure.

Watch the pressure on it. I haven't run into an issue yet but a quarter turn on my spigot is all I need. I think they make regulators if you have too much pressure.

Soaker hoses are good temporary measure, but they crap out quickly. I use trickle hoses I got from my nephew who does lawn irrigation systems. Much sturdier and don't waste as much water.

The sun will quickly decimate soaker hoses so be sure to keep them covered with needles or mulsh.

I replaced mine with drip lines as i was watering a lot of weeds between hedge plants.

Until this year I've used a hose bib timer from Home Depot from their Dig brand and poly pipe. I ran a mixture and would avoid the soaker hose if you want to use it long term. The best bet is 1/4" hose coming off a trunk line with adjustable drippers. That way you can remove the dripper head to clear clogs and scale blockage as well as adjust each dripper to tailor the watering to each plant or container.

hose timer
parts kit

I now have a dedicated zone on my sprinkler system and I've redone each bed with drippers and 1/4" hose.

It depends on your budget and how quickly you need something working. If the budget is small and you are in a hurry i agree with the soaker and timer. If you have more time and money i reccomend dripdepot.com. They have good prices and someone who will pick up the phone if you have a question. Its pretty simple to modify your existing sprinklers to drip.