If any of that sounds complicated, don’t worry. I’ll walk you through everything you need to know with a step-by-step video tutorial, photos, and a detailed parts list. 

Though the system shown in this guide is being used to water fruit trees and shrubs, you could also use a similar solar powered drip irrigation system for raised garden beds, flower beds, or traditional sprinkler system. Or, install the solar controller on an existing irrigation system. See our other drip irrigation tutorials here, including how to install drip irrigation to raised beds or a hose faucet.

UPDATE: You can now find a full tour and tutorial of how we created the new orchard space using natural terraces and permaculture-style berms here. Full plant list included!

Benefits of Drip Irrigation

Automated drip systems are one the best parts of any garden project, in my humble opinion. Installing drip irrigation isn’t all that difficult, and the payback is well worth the effort! Drip systems save substantial water, time, and energy compared to hand-watering or conventional overhead watering systems. 

Drip irrigation also provides plants with slow, targeted, consistent, and deep water – which they prefer for ideal root development and growth! This leads to healthier plants that are more tolerant to stress from drought, freezing, heat and more. 

Even better, solar powered drip irrigation systems allow you to automate your irrigation even if there isn’t a power source nearby. Harnessing the power of the sun, rechargeable solar batteries outlast regular batteries by many, many years.

Drip System Zones and Pressure

Most large drip irrigation systems must be divvied up into several distinct zones (stations) that will run at different times. This offers a number of benefits, and is easy to achieve with a simple irrigation manifold and controller. 

First, using separate zones enables you to tailor your irrigation schedule to meet the unique and varying water needs for different plants. For instance, fruit trees or raised garden beds will require more water (in frequency and/or amount) than drought-tolerant shrubs. 

Second, the use of many zones helps reduce demand on any one line, and maintains better water pressure throughout the system. Drip irrigation components are designed to operate under 20 to 30 PSI, while normal household water pressure can be as high as 80 PSI. Higher pressure will cause the sensitive parts to “blow out”, so a pressure regulator is typically added at the beginning of the drip line near the valve. Yet the water pressure will continue to drop as it travels through long lengths of drip tubing, so it’s best to not surpass 100 to 200 feet of solid ½” irrigation tubing in a single zone.

PARTS AND SUPPLIES

Below is a list of all the supplies we used to set up our solar powered drip irrigation system. For anything that involves a PVC/threaded connection, note that I linked parts compatible with ¾ inch PVC. However, you should be able to toggle and choose different sizes if you’re working with a different pipe diameter, male vs female threaded parts, etc. 

Solar powered irrigation controller

• Hunter XC-Hybrid Controller – This hybrid controller operates with traditional batteries OR is converted to 100% solar power with the addition of a solar panel kit (below) – which is what we did. We have the 6 station controller, though it’s also available with 12 stations. 
  

• Hunter Solar Panel Kit – Use this kit to make the Hunter XC hybrid into a solar powered irrigation controller. It comes with a solar panel and rechargeable solar battery, which replaces the standard battery pack that comes with the controller.
  

Valve head assembly parts

• Anti-siphon valves (ASV) – one per station. ASV valves serve several purposes: they control the on/off action of each valve, connect to the controller to automate the system, and provide backflow protection to the water system. We use these Hunter PGV-ASV valves.
  
  
• DC Latching Solenoids – one per station. Standard ASV valves come with AC solenoids, but need to be swapped out for DC solenoids in order to be compatible with the solar controller. (The solenoid is the part on top that turns the valve on and off, either manually by turning it, or through the wired control panel. They’re easy to unscrew and replace.)
  
  
• Canister filters – one per station, installed after the ASV valve. The filter prevents dirt or other debris from entering the drip lines and clogging emitters. We use these durable canister filters with a fine mesh stainless steel screen inside. They come apart for routine maintenance (wash or replace filter).
  

• Pressure regulators – one per station. 20 to 40 PSI is ideal to operate drip irrigation systems. We like these Senninger pressure regulators, and chose the 25 PSI option since we also have gravity working in our favor in this system. 
  

• Multi-strand irrigation or sprinkler wire, with enough wires for every station in your system – plus one. For instance, a 7 strand wire for a system with 6 zones. We used 7 strand wire for our four-zone system and simply capped the two extra wires. You can usually find it in shorter sections at your local hardware store if you only need a few feet. 

Drip line, couplers, and adapters

• PVC to irrigation tubing adapters. If you add PVC after your valves/head assembly, you’ll need to eventually convert the PVC to drip tubing. We use these adapters, which have male pipe thread on one end and a coupler to connect ½” drip tubing on the other. 
  

• Standard ½ inch irrigation tubing, which is commonly available in 100 foot rolls. For larger projects, consider 250 foot rolls or a 500 foot roll if necessary. This tubing will create the bulk of your drip irrigation system. 
  

• Various ½” couplers (including tees or elbows), used to run ½” tubing throughout your landscape where needed. This varies depending on your system layout. I suggest drawing out your system to determine how many couplers you’ll need. We prefer to use PermaLoc couplers over compression fittings. They’re durable and reusable, making it easy to make adjustments or repairs! On the other hand, compression fittings are more permanent and tubing must be cut to make changes. 

Other drip emitter parts

• Various drip emitters of choice, such as adjustable bubbler emitters, bubblers on stakes, standard barbed 1 GPH emitters and more. 
• Solid ¼” microtubing, if you’d like to run drip emitters anywhere that isn’t directly adjacent to your main ½” tubing. 
• ¼” barbed couplers to connect the ¼” drip tubing to the ½” main line tubing headers.
• A hole punch tool, used to add holes and add emitters along the ½” main line.
• Figure 8 clamps to end the main ½” lines.
• Goof plugs are handy to plug any mistakes or unwanted holes in the 1/2″ tubing.
• Galvanized landscape staples to hold the drip line in place.

INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS

Main Water Supply Connection

First you’ll need a nearby water supply or main line. For this particular project, we chose an existing tap uphill of the new orchard space – which is also ideal for gravity flow to help the system maintain pressure. 

To connect to the main water line, we first turned off water to the property and turned on the tap to drain the lines. Next, we cut into the PVC line with good pipe cutters and glued on a simple ball valve shutoff valve. This way, we’re able to close the valve and turn the main water supply back on (after the pipe glue dried) while we continued to work on the irrigation system over the following weeks. Isolating the drip system with its own valve will also allow us to easily make repairs in the future without shutting water off to the entire property. 

The location of our drip manifold and valves happened to be at the end of a waterline. If yours is not, install a tee in your main water line to connect the drip manifold to instead. 

Valve Manifold and Head Assembly

A valve manifold is a collection of irrigation valves assembled together and connected to a common supply line. I chose to assemble the entire manifold and then connect it to the main line (rather than piecing together all the parts in place). That way, I didn’t have to bend over and work in a trench the whole time, or get a bunch of dirt in the lines. 

My manifold is made from ¾” PVC with four tees and risers (one for each zone) plus a capped dead end that I can cut and connect more zones to in the future. 

The valve head assembly flows as follows: 

• From the main water line, add a “riser” or connection for each station – a length of pipe where each ASV valve will attach. Space the valve connections about 5 to 7 inches apart in small spaces, or up to 10 to 12” apart for more room for repairs. The length or height of the connection will depend on your system and climate. In places with harsh winters, valve manifolds are often buried underground or otherwise insulated to protect against freezing. Follow irrigation depth and installation best practices for your area. We’re able to keep our valves above ground for easy and convenient maintenance. 
  

• Next connect the ASV valve to each riser, followed by the filter, and then the pressure regulator. Canister filters aren’t designed to be under constant pressure, so it is important that they’re installed after the valve. However, the filter may also cause a slight pressure loss, maye 2 to 8 PSI, so it’s also best to put it before your pressure reducer. That way, the flow coming out of the pressure reducer is true to specs.  
  

• To piece this all together, we used plumbing tape at each threaded component, and regular PVC pipe glue and primer for the slip PVC potions.
  

Valve/Controller Wiring and Solar Panel Add-On

If using the solar panel add-on kit, replace the AC solenoids that came with the ASV valves to DC solenoids before continuing with wiring. With the water turned off, simply unscrew the AC solenoids and screw on the DC.

• Using multi-strand irrigation wire, connect one colored strand from the multi-strand to each RED wire coming from the ASV solenoid. Carefully strip the tip of each wire, screw on a wire connector cap, and secure with electrical tape (optional).
  
  
• Gather and connect ALL of the black wires from the ASV solenoids to a single common wire from the multi-strand (we chose white). You may need a larger connector cap to fit them all inside.
  
  
• Cap any unused wires from the multi-strand irrigation wire.
  
  
• Run the multi-strand wire up inside the bottom of your irrigation control box. We ran ours inside schedule 80 PVC (UV resistant) to protect the wire.
  
  
• Inside the irrigation control box, connect each colored wire to a corresponding numbered station. Carefully strip the coating from the end of the wire, loosen the screw, tuck the exposed wire behind the screw, and tighten it back down.
  
  
• To convert the irrigation controller to solar power, remove the traditional battery pack it came with. Insert the rechargeable solar battery from the solar add-on kit instead.
  
  
• Install the solar panel in a location that receives good direct sunlight. Run the wire from the solar panel into the bottom of the controller box, and connect the two wires to those attached to the rechargeable solar battery with a cap. Voila! Now you have a solar powered irrigation system!

Distribution System and Drip Emitters

Once the solar irrigation controller and valves are set up, it’s time to get water to your plants! 

You can either connect solid ½” drip irrigation tubing right off the end of your valves, or extend your hard pipe further before converting to drip – like we did. Since our valves are a good distance from the landscaped area we want to water, we ran PVC down the hill first since it’s more durable, less likely to get chewed on by gophers, and the larger diameter allows for better water flow (and less pressure loss) than ½” tubing. 

• Before connecting any drip components, I recommend turning on the water to flush all lines and clear debris first.
  
  
• Convert from PVC or other threaded parts (e.g. from the pressure reducer) to drip tubing using one of these adapters.
  
  
• From there, run ½” irrigation tubing around your landscape, using tees or other couplers as needed. Secure the lines in place with landscape staples. It’s best to keep the tubing near the base of plants if possible.
  
  
• Use a figure 8 clamp or other end cap to end the lines where needed.
  
  
• Use a hole punch tool to add drip emitters, bubblers, ¼” micro-tubing, and other drip components to your system. We like to use classic barbed emitters at the base of shrubs, bubblers to irrigate a slightly wider diameter, or these stake bubblers to irrigate trees.
  
  
• Finally, turn on your system and give it a test run!
  
• Drip irrigation lines can be covered in several inches of soil or mulch including bark, wood chips, straw, or even gravel.

How long to run drip irrigation systems?

It depends! Every garden has different water demands based on the unique climate, soil, season, temperatures and rainfall patterns. It also depends on your mulching practices, and what type of plants you’re growing. Soil protected with a nice 2 to 4″ layer of mulch will stay damp much longer than bare soil, greatly reducing water needs.

In general, it’s best to provide less frequent, deep, long watering as opposed to short shallow bouts of water every day. This will encourage deep healthy roots and stronger, more resilient plants. In our climate, we typically set our solar irrigation controllers to run for about 45 minutes to an hour, twice per week (and turn them completely off during the rainy winter season). 

The time you run your irrigation system will also vary depending on the type of emitters used. For instance, systems using adjustable bubbler emitters with a higher flow rate (often 10 to 30 GPH) will emit a lot more water and faster than a system using single 1 GPH drip emitters.

And that’s how to install a solar powered drip irrigation system.

Well folks, I hope this tutorial helps you feel empowered and prepared to install your own automatic solar powered drip irrigation system too! Let me know if you have any questions in the comments below. Also please consider pinning or sharing this article if you found it useful. Stay tuned for an upcoming post about how we created our orchard area too. Best of luck, and happy irrigating!

You may also like:

• How to Install Drip Irrigation in Raised Garden Beds (Drip Tape)
• Easy Raised Bed Drip Irrigation Connected to a Faucet or Spigot
• Mulch Options: Pros and Cons of 8 Popular Types of Garden Mulch
• Top 23 Plants for Pollinators: Attract Bees, Butterflies, Hummingbirds and More
• 50+ Gopher-Resistant Plants for California and Beyond

The post How to Install Solar Powered Drip Irrigation, Controller and Valves appeared first on Homestead and Chill.

This guide will walk you through how to install a simple drip irrigation system for raised garden beds. Video and photos are included. We installed this drip system to irrigate our large grow bag garden, yet it’s perfectly suited for traditional wood garden beds, metal raised bed kits, in-ground garden plots, and more! 

Last year, I also shared a tutorial on how we installed drip irrigation in our wood raised beds using drip tape, PVC pipe, and automated valves. We love that option too, but the system I’ll show you today is even easier to set up. Zero plumbing skills are required! It’s also a little less permanent in nature – enabling you to easily disconnect or store your irrigation system during the winter if needed. (Though you could also connect this type of drip system to hard pipe and valves too.)

In this article you will find:

• A list of supplies needed to make a simple raised bed drip irrigation system that connects to an outdoor faucet or tap. 
• A YouTube tutorial that shows the step-by-step process.
• A written summary of the steps shown in the video, with photos for quick and easy reference.
• We’ll also talk about water pressure, winterizing, and how long to run raised bed drip irrigation systems.

A note on our grow bags: We have both 100-gallon and 150-gallon grow bags in our “calendula farm”. Unfortunately our exact bags are no longer available, but this is another well-rated option with similar dimensions and specs.

Supplies Needed for an Easy Raised Bed Drip Irrigation System

 
We get almost all of our drip irrigation supplies from Drip Depot. They’re fantastic! The affiliate links found in this article gives us a small commission at no cost to you. We greatly appreciate your support, which enables us to share tutorials like this with you!

1. A nearby hose tap (spigot or faucet). For the best results and pressure, choose a tap that’s within 50 feet or closer from the raised beds. See pressure notes to follow. It’s usually not all that difficult or expensive to have a new faucet installed closer to your beds if needed!
   
   
2. A 4-in-1 faucet adapter, which is specifically designed to connect drip irrigation to a hose tap. It comes with all the parts you need (that you can also buy separately): 1) a filter to prevent sediment from entering and clogging the drip system, 2) a backflow preventer to protect your drinking water supply from contamination, 3) a pressure regulator (drip systems need to operate at 20 to 30 PSI), and 4) a coupler/adapter that the ½” drip irrigation tubing connects to.
   
   
3. Standard ½ inch irrigation tubing, which is commonly available in 100 foot rolls. For larger projects, consider 250 foot rolls or a 500 foot roll if necessary. This tubing will create the bulk of your easy raised bed drip irrigation system. Get enough tubing to run from the tap, between the beds, up the sides of the beds, and also to create the “header” inside each bed”.  
   

4. ¼” dripline tubing, which comes with pre-installed drip emitters. You’ll need enough to run several lines down the length (longest side) of each raised bed – explained more in the “header assembly” section to follow. For example, one 4×8’ raised bed with 4 rows of dripline will require about 32 feet of dripline tubing.
   
   Note that drip tubing comes in various flow rates and emitter spacing. For this project, we chose drip tubing that has ½ gallon per hour emitters every 6 inches, and space the rows of dripline every 8 or 9 inches across the bed. I find that 6-inch spacing provides nice even saturation and allows for flexible planting throughout the raised beds.
   

5. ¼” barbed couplers to connect the ¼” drip tubing to the ½” main line tubing headers.
   
   
6. A punch tool, used to add holes and attach the drip tubing to the ½” black supply line.
   
   
7. Figure 8 clamps to end the main ½” lines. You’ll need one for each header, and possibly more to end other lines in your system – depending on the layout.
   
   
8. Goof plugs, to end/cap each of the ¼” drip tubing lines. These can also be used to plug unwanted holes in the 1/2″ tubing.
   
   
9. Various ½” couplers (including tees and elbows), used to run ½” tubing line between and up the sides of your raised beds. This varies depending on your system layout. I suggest drawing out your system to determine how many couplers you’ll need. We prefer to use PermaLoc couplers over compression fittings. They’re durable and reusable, making it easy to make adjustments or repairs! On the other hand, compression fittings are more permanent and tubing must be cut to make changes. 
   

10. Galvanized landscape staples to hold the drip line in place.
    
    
11.  Scissors to cut the drip tubing. I also find pliers are helpful when working with the ¼” couplers. 

Optional Supplies

• A battery-operated faucet timer to easily automate your raised bed drip irrigation system. In this particular project, we used a 2-outlet hose timer (what we already had on hand) that can be used to connect two drip lines to a single tap. Or, you can use a single outlet hose timer. They even make 3-outlet timers for systems with 3 zones. We’ve been using these timers for years and they still work perfectly! I haven’t even had to change batteries on some that have been running for two years.
  
  
• Shut-off valves for each bed. Install one of these simple on/off valves in the header or riser of each raised bed for the utmost control! That way, you can turn off the water to certain beds if some are in use while others are not. Or, turn the valve halfway to restrict/reduce water flow to beds that have less water demand than others (e.g. for drought tolerant crops like peppers). We skipped this option in this particular project, but did install individual valves on each raised bed in our main garden space.
  
  
• A hose splitter or Y-valve. With this, you can connect the drip irrigation system to a faucet (on one side of the splitter) while also still maintaining a free outlet to use a garden hose, fill watering cans, etc.

Drip Irrigation System Layout and Pressure 

It’s best to not surpass 100 to 200 feet of solid ½” irrigation tubing (the main line that runs from the tap and between beds). Otherwise, your raised bed drip irrigation system may not have adequate pressure towards the far end of the lines. 

For very large areas (where more than 200+ feet of line is needed), it’s best to split the system into separate zones or shorter lines that will run at different times if possible. For instance, from two different taps, or with two separate lines using a 2-outlet hose timer. This is also helpful if you have various beds/areas with different water needs.

Drip components are designed to operate under 20 to 30 PSI. It’s usually necessary to use a pressure regulator in drip irrigation systems because high pressure can “blow out” sensitive drip parts. Normal house water pressure can be as high as 80 PSI. 

Yet if pressure seems too low in your raised bed drip system (and your house/tap pressure isn’t crazy high), you could experiment with NOT using a pressure reducer at the tap. When in doubt, use a hose thread pressure gauge at the tap you’re connecting the system to to assess the pressure starting point. Then you can simply unscrew and remove the pressure reducer component from the 4-in-1 adapter if needed.

How far should I space drip lines in raised garden beds?

It’s best to space drip irrigation lines in raised garden beds every 6 to 12 inches – and no wider than 12” apart. 

For example, in our 4×8’ raised garden beds, we installed rows of dripline every 9 inches evenly across the bed – or four lines total per bed. With emitters every 6” along the lines, this provides a nice even distribution of water that saturates the entire bed, allowing us to plant along the drip lines or in between. This is especially helpful for closely-spaced plantings like root veggies.

After all, one of the many benefits of growing in raised beds is that you don’t have to follow rigid row planting, unlike traditional field row crops. Plus, the more damp soil there is around, the more the worms, nematodes, and beneficial microbes will thrive! Last but not least, watering in a wide swath around plants (as opposed to directly at their base only) encourages roots to explore, growing larger and wider. That leads to bigger, healthier plants! 

How to Install an Easy Raised Bed Drip Irrigation System

Step 1: Assemble Headers with Drip Lines

Each raised garden bed or planter needs a “header”. The headers are made with ½” solid tubing that sits inside one of the short ends of the bed, where the smaller dripline tubing connects to. 

If you’re installing drip irrigation in multiple raised garden beds of the same size, I find it’s easiest to make just one header in or near the garden bed to figure out the size and spacing. Take note of the measurements, and then use that header as a guide or prototype to pre-assemble the remaining headers in a clean work space. (Such as a concrete patio or large table.) That way, there is less risk of getting soil inside the parts as you work – which can clog your emitters! Assembling the headers first also makes the rest of the system install very quick and easy.

Header Assembly

• Measure and cut the solid 1/2″ solid tubing to fit inside one short end of your raised bed. If you’re using figure 8 end clamps to end the line, leave a couple extra inches to fold over.
  
  
• Cap one end of the header line with a figure 8 clamp or other end cap.
  
  
• The other end of the header will receive water from the main supply line and riser. The design of your header connection will vary depending on your system layout. We added an elbow (90°) PermaLoc adapter to one end of our header, which connects to a riser that runs up the outside of the bed. See photos below.
  
  
• Measure and cut ¼” drip tubing lines. Make them long enough to run the length of the bed and connect into the header.
  
  
• Measure and/or mark where you want each row of drip tubing to attach to the ½” header, spaced evenly across the bed (between 6 to 12 inches apart).
  
  
• Use a punch tool to create holes in the main header tubing. Be sure the holes are all facing the same direction so the drip tubing will lay flat on the soil surface.
  
  
• Attach drip tubing to the header. Insert a ¼” barbed coupler into one end of the ¼” drip tubing. Then push the other end of the barb into the header tubing.
  
  
• Finally, cap/end each ¼” drip tubing line with a goof plug. 

Step 2: Connect Drip Line to Tap

• Optional: To easily automate the raised bed drip irrigation system, add a simple faucet timer to the tap first. You can also add a hose splitter before the timer, leaving one side of the tap free for other things.
  
  
• Next, screw on the 4-in-1 faucet to drip adapter.
  
  
• Connect the ½” drip tubing to the coupler at the end of the adapter.
  

Step 3: Run Drip Line Between Beds

• Run the ½” main line from the hose tap or faucet to the raised garden beds. Use tees, elbows or other couplers to create rows between beds as needed.
  
  
• Each bed will need a point of connection and riser. Cut into the main line near the bed, insert a tee or elbow (depending on the layout of your lines), and add another piece of ½” tubing up the side of the raised bed. Another option is to hide the riser by running it under and inside the garden bed.
  
  
• Optional: Add a shut-off valve for each bed, explained in the supplies section above. The valve can be installed along the riser, or as part of your header.
  
  
• It is okay to cover or bury the ½” mainline drip tubing in several inches of mulch, bark, soil, gravel, or other cover.
  
  
• Leave the very ends of the lines open for now (not capped) so you can flush the lines before adding the drip components. 

Step 4: Install and Connect Headers

Before adding the headers to your raised beds, flush the main lines to remove any potential debris that could clog emitters. Simply turn the water on and let it run freely out of the end of the lines for a minute or so. 

After flushing the lines, connect the headers to the risers you’ve added to each raised bed. Tuck the header inside the short end of the bed and attach it to the riser. Secure it in place with landscape staples or pins. Next, position the drip tubing lines evenly down the length of the bed and pin them in place too. 

Using the System

When you’re ready to use your new raised bed drip irrigation system, simply turn on the tap! If you’re using a hose timer, leave the main faucet ON at all times, set the timer, and it will let water into the lines per the schedule you specify. 

Once the system is set up, it’s easy to calculate water use and flow rate! Count the number of emitters per bed, then multiply that by the emitter flow rate. For example, each grow bag shown in this example has 28 emitters, and each emitter is rated for ½ gallon per hour. That means each grow bag would receive 14 gallons of water per hour the system runs. 

How long should I run my raised bed drip irrigation system?

It depends! Every garden has different water demands based on the unique climate, soil, season, temperatures and rainfall patterns. It also depends on your mulching practices, and how thirsty your plants are. Larger, mature plants generally “drink” more water than smaller ones. Soil protected with a nice 2 to 4″ layer of mulch will stay damp much longer than bare soil, greatly reducing water needs.

In general, it’s best to provide less frequent, deep, long watering as opposed to short shallow bouts of water every day. This will encourage deep healthy roots and stronger, more resilient plants. Try to water enough to keep the soil evenly moist at all times, but allow it to dry out ever-so-slightly between watering. Of course, you never want the soil to be totally dry! But remember that plants breathe through their roots – so the soil shouldn’t be constantly sopping wet either.

In our climate, we typically run our raised bed drip irrigation system for about 45 minutes, twice per week. The time you run your system will also vary depending on the type of emitters used. For instance, if we were using drip tubing with 0.25 gallon per hour emitters (instead of 0.5 GPH), we would run the system for twice as long.

When direct-sowing seeds, plan to provide additional overhead or hand-watering during the first few weeks. That will help keep the top of the soil nice and damp during germination and early root development.

Winterizing raised bed drip irrigation systems

As with all types of irrigation, it’s best to winterize your raised bed drip irrigation system before freezing conditions arrive. At minimum, thoroughly drain the system and protect it with a nice deep layer of mulch. Leaving standing water in pipes or valves can cause them to crack when the water freezes and expands. Or, to further reduce the risk of damage, folks in extremely cold climates may want to remove the drip irrigation components completely. Store your supplies in a protected location over winter, such as in a garage or similar.

Thanks for irrigating with me!

After reading this, I hope you feel empowered and prepared to go install an easy raised bed drip irrigation system of your own. Once you understand the basics of irrigation, the options are endless! You should be able to adjust and tweak things to create an ideal irrigation system for your garden or project. Please consider pinning or sharing this post if it was useful. Also feel free to ask any questions in the comments below. Thank you so much for tuning in today, and enjoy!

You may also enjoy:

• How to Build a Raised Garden Bed (video included)
• All About Calendula: How to Grow, Harvest, and Use Calendula Flowers
• How to Install Drip Tape Irrigation in Raised Garden Beds
• 17 Ways to Save Water in the Garden and Landscape
• Rainwater Harvesting 101: How to Set up a Rainwater Collection System
• Companion Planting 101 and Printable Chart
• How to Remove or Kill Grass (and Grow Food, Not Lawns!)

The post Easy Raised Bed Drip Irrigation (from Faucet or Spigot) appeared first on Homestead and Chill.

That’s not to say we shouldn’t be using water outdoors though. Trees, shrubs, flowers and edible gardens are all very worthy of water! Plants help to feed us, absorb heat and carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, provide shade, stabilize soil, and offer habitat for wildlife. We just need to do better with how we maintain them.

Read along to learn 17 different ways to save water in the garden and increase drought resilience. Whether your goal is to cut your water bill or be more eco-friendly, many of these water-saving tips are actually best for plant health too! A water-wise garden doesn’t necessarily mean xeriscaping with rock and cacti either. It’s possible to grow lush, vibrant, beautiful gardens while still being conscious of water use.

Ways to save water in the garden, a glance:

1. Stop overwatering
2. Reduce or eliminate grass lawn
3. Mulch, mulch, mulch!
4. Use drip irrigation
5. Water deeply but less frequently
6. Adjust with seasons and weather
7. Choose drought tolerant and native plants
8. Repair leaks
9. Amend soil with organic matter
10. Use ollas
11. Water at night
12. Plant densely
13. Automate, timers, and valves
14. Collect rainwater
15. Swales, berms and land contouring 
16. Prioritize and compromise
17. Greywater systems

Now let’s briefly discuss each of these water-saving techniques, one-by-one!

1) Stop overwatering

Overwatering is one of the most common mistakes in the garden. Even the most well-intended plant parents sometimes give their plants more water than they actually need to get by – houseplants and seedlings included! Plants breathe through their root systems, and most of them do not like to be constantly soggy. Rather, most plants prefer only modestly damp soil and will tolerate when the soil dries out just slightly between watering. So, err on the conservative side rather than being heavy-handed with water!

Unfortunately, I can’t tell you exactly how much and how often to water. That varies greatly depending on your climate, soil type, plants, and more. Finding the perfect watering schedule for your landscape will take a little research and experimentation on your part. But get in there and feel how damp or dry your soil (check several inches below the surface) is before watering again!

If you’re trying to cut back and save water in your garden, gradually reduce the water and see how the plants respond. Watch for wilting, yellowing, dry or crisping leaves – all signs that a plant may need more water again.

2) Reduce or eliminate lawn areas

Lush green lawns are a thing of the past. Once a sign of prestige, grass lawns scream “wasteful” nowadays – especially in dry climates like California. Maintaining a green lawn requires an exorbitant amount of water, and isn’t doing the environment many favors in return! Lawns don’t offer food or habitat for native wildlife and pollinators, and instead, usually rely on chemical fertilizers and herbicides to keep up their neat appearance. 

With over 40 million acres of lawn in the US alone, watering grass accounts for literal trillions of gallons of water used per year. Plus, lawn sprinklers are notoriously the most wasteful type of irrigation you can use due to overspray, runoff, and evaporation. On the other hand, woody plants, shrubs, and other non-turf plants can thrive with 55% less water than that needed to maintain typical fescue lawn. 

If you would like a small patch of green space for kids or dogs, consider using native low or no-mow grasses, or even clover. Otherwise, eliminating lawn areas will help you save a ton of water in the garden! Please see this guide to learn how to kill, smother, or otherwise remove your lawn – so you can use valuable water to grow more beneficial things like food, flowers, and shrubs instead.

3) Mulch

Mulch, mulch, and more mulch! Okay, more isn’t *always* better, but providing 2 to 4 inches of mulch over bare soil is absolutely essential to save water in the garden. Naked soil is just begging to dry out! Mulch protects and insulates soil, reduces evaporation and runoff while simultaneously buffering the soil (and plant roots) from temperature extremes. The top few inches of soil especially will stay damp far longer when mulched than when exposed to air and sunlight.

Popular organic mulch options for the garden include wood chips, bark, compost, straw, and leaves. Gravel acts as mulch too, but is usually used in pathways and open spaces rather than directly around plants. Learn more about mulching best practices here, and explore the pros and cons of 8 different mulch types in this article. 

4) Switch to drip irrigation

Compared to overhead sprinklers, drip irrigation can save significant water in the garden! According to the UC Master Gardener Program, drip irrigation is up to 90% efficient while sprinklers OR hand-watering are only 50 to 70 percent efficient. Drip emitters disperse water only where needed at the base of each plant. Specialized emitters, bubblers, and other attachments enable you to tailor your drip system to a wide variety of plants, applications, and flow rates.  

Drip irrigation systems eliminate wasted water that goes hand-in-hand with traditional sprinklers, avoiding overspray, runoff, watering walkways, or space between plants. Not watering unnecessary areas also helps reduce unwanted weed growth! When water is sprayed up into the air, it also evaporates much faster – sometimes before it even hits the ground.

Drip irrigation also saves water in the garden by delivering smaller volumes and more slowly. Slow drip irrigation gives the water more time to soak into the soil, which reduces runoff and nutrient leaching – ideal for sloped or flat gardens alike. It also means the water penetrates the soil more deeply, which results in deeper root systems, healthier plants, and moist soil for a longer period of time. 

5) Water deeply and less frequently

If they had to choose, plants will always prefer deep, slow, and less frequent watering sessions over frequent bouts of shallow water or flooding. For instance, we run the drip irrigation in our raised beds, orchard and general landscape for about an hour twice per week, which is far better than turning it on for 20 or 30 minutes every day or two. 

By offering slow deep water, the soil stays damp longer – reducing overall water demand. Even better, plant roots will grow nice and deep, following where the water goes. Deep-rooted plants are more drought tolerant, resilient to temperature swings, and grow larger. In contrast, offering shallow water more frequently encourages plants with shallow root systems that are generally less healthy. 

6) Adjust with seasons and weather

Adjusting your irrigation schedule with the seasons is another important way to save water in the garden. For instance, we change our irrigation timers to reduce both the duration and frequency of water during the cooler months of late autumn, winter and early spring – even if it’s not raining much here! Most plants go dormant or semi-dormant during the darker days of winter, so they need less water overall compared to when they’re actively growing, flowering or bearing fruit. The same applies to houseplants!

Also keep an eye on the weather forecast. When rain is on the horizon, be sure to turn off all your automated irrigation systems until things dry up again. Many modern irrigation controllers have a rain sensor setting or other seasonal control options too.

7) Choose drought tolerant and native plants

Choosing drought-tolerant plants or those native to your area will help save water in the garden. Yet again, that doesn’t mean you need to fill your garden with ONLY natives and extra drought-resistant plants like cacti and succulents. Woody shrubs, herbs, and flowers are already a more water-wise choice than grass lawn. Some of our favorite low-water plants include lavender, rosemary, various salvia and sages, yarrow, echinacea, agastache, catmint, verbena and lantana. We love to grow agave, cacti and succulents too! Avoid water-loving tropical plants in dry, arid climates.

Related: Top 23 Plants for Pollinators to Attract Bees, Butterflies, and Hummingbirds

8) Watch for and repair leaks

Stay vigilant and watch for unusual wet spots, runoff, dripping fixtures, or suspicious extra-green patches that may be getting “free” water from somewhere. We’ve discovered and repaired many holes and tears in our drip tubing (usually thanks to gophers chewing on them) after observing an odd bloom of weeds in an otherwise dry area.

The EPA explains that a single leaky faucet that drips one time per second can waste up to 3,000 gallons of water per year! So tighten or replace leaky faucets, and use plumbers tape to help stop dripping threaded connections. If needed, call in a plumber or irrigation specialist for help. Finally, don’t just let your hose run free when it’s on! Use a trusty hose nozzle on the end that shuts off the flow for you.

9) Add compost and organic matter to soil 

Soil composition plays a significant role in how well it retains water. Sandy soil drains very quickly and therefore dries out fast. The same goes for extra fluffy potting soils, especially those “made for containers” with a lot of perlite. On the other hand, clay soil has the potential to hold a lot of water, but is often so dense and compact the water runs right off instead of being absorbed.  

Amending your soil with organic matter like well-aged compost and worm castings will greatly benefit sandy and clay soil alike. Water is naturally attracted to organic matter, which is perfectly suited to absorb and retain it like a sponge. Organic matter also breaks up hard clay soil, providing more air pockets and space for roots to grow and breathe. We also like to add small ⅜” volcanic rock to our raised garden bed soil. The lava rock is both absorbent and porous, which helps with overall moisture balance – promoting good moisture retention AND drainage. 

Even better, did you know that compost and other amendments can make plants more resilient to drought? The nutrients and beneficial microbes found in compost enhance overall soil and plant health, especially when paired with deep watering practices. Robust, healthy, deep-rooted plants are more resilient to environmental stress, including drought, disease, and pests. Meaning, they’ll be able to hang with a little less water. 

Related:

• How to Amend and Fertilize Garden Soil
• Composting 101: 6 Ways to Compost at Home
• How to Fill Raised Beds with the Perfect Organic Soil
• How to Make Actively Aerated Compost Tea to Feed Your Garden

10) Use Ollas

Ollas (pronounced oy-ya or oh-ya) are amazing little tools that save water in the garden! Traditionally made of porous clay, an olla is a container or vessel that’s buried in the soil and filled with water. Via osmosis, water then slowly seeps out through the walls of the vessel to irrigate the surrounding soil.

Much like drip irrigation, ollas have the benefit of delivering water slow and deep. They usually aren’t used as the sole form of irrigation (with the exception of in containers), but can help offset the frequency and amount that you need to provide other water – and also prevent soil from yo-yoing between extreme wet and dry!

The really neat thing is, water will only seep from the olla if the soil needs it. So, ollas are also a great gauge of how dry your soil is, or how well you’re watering in general. If they empty very slowly over several days, your soil is probably nicely moist. In contrast, if the olla empties rapidly after filling it, the soil must be very dry and thirsty.

Before we had automated drip irrigation, we used ollas in combination with BPA-free soaker hoses to water our raised garden beds. Now, we still use ollas in large grow bags, wine barrels, and other big containers! Save 5% off GrowOyas (our favorite ollas) with code “deannacat”.

11) Water at night

It’s best to set automated irrigation timers to go off sometime between 6 pm and 6 am. Watering plants overnight (including in the evening or early morning hours) helps save water in the garden by reducing evaporation. As opposed to during the heat of the day, providing water when it is cool and dark gives plant roots ample time to absorb water before the sun hits and starts to dry soil out. 

12) Plant densely

Densely planted spaces use less water per plant than sparsely planted landscapes. Meaning, 20 shrubs planted in clusters or fairly close to one another will require less water to maintain than those same 20 shrubs if they were more spread out. Similarly, full garden beds retain moisture better than partially empty ones. Dense plant cover shades the soil which reduces evaporation, while smothering weeds and increasing both biodiversity and yields. 

Yet don’t confuse dense planting with overcrowding! Try to still respect the recommended spacing for each plant species, as crowding plants can lead to issues with disease, pests, airflow, nutrient competition or stunted growth.

13) Get in control with timers, zones and valves

Using automated timers and controllers is a great way to save water in the garden, and can save loads of time and effort too! Irrigation control systems are set to deliver only the amount of water the plants need, and at ideal times (such as overnight). With timers, you don’t have to worry about turning on the water and accidentally forgetting to turn it off.

We use a variety of controllers and timers in our garden, including a larger Hunter controller for our main 6-station landscape irrigation hub, along with several of these easy garden hose/faucet timers in other areas. Even if you don’t want a timer that turns the water ON for you, these simple hose timers will turn it off after a set amount of time. They operate much like an old school count-down oven timer.

Since different plants have varying water requirements, breaking your landscape irrigation up into different zones is also key. For instance, our orchard is on a separate irrigation zone from our raised garden beds, plus other zones for the perennials and ornamental trees. Then we can run the zones for different days, times, or turn some off completely as needed. We also installed individual shut-off valves at every raised garden bed so we can turn off individual beds to save water when they don’t have crops in them. 

14) Set up a rainwater collection system

Did you know that you can collect over 600 gallons of water from a 1000 square foot roof in a single 1-inch rainstorm?! Harvesting rainwater is a fantastic way to get “free” water for your garden and offset your water bill. Plus, plants absolutely thrive with fresh natural rain water compared to chlorinated city tap water. 

Rainwater collection systems can be as simple as a 50 gallon barrel at the end of a gutter downspout, or as elaborate as multi-thousand gallon tanks and pump systems. Check out this guide to learn all about setting up and using a basic rainwater collection system, along with frequently asked questions about size, regulations, roof types, contaminants, mosquitoes and more. 

We had a pretty sweet little rainwater collection system in our old garden, and it’s definitely on our “to-do” list for the new homestead too! Collecting and using rainwater can be a bit tricky in arid climates like ours though. Since we get all of our annual rainfall over a short span of time (it only rains in winter here), it’s best to have large tanks with ample storage capacity – to be able to capture as much rainwater as possible at once, and have enough stored to hopefully last until it rains once again the following year. Folks with more frequent rainfall throughout the year can get by with much smaller systems since its constantly refilling.

15) Swales, berms, and water-wise landscape design

There are a number of ways to work with the contours of the land to passively increase water efficiency. Swales are a technique used in permaculture that relies on trenches or depressions in the ground (either man-made or natural) to direct and channel water runoff to key areas. For example, swales around fruit trees can concentrate and increase the water each tree receives, rather than the water absorbing in the empty spaces between the trees. Similarly, terracing and/or raised berms help to reduce runoff and increase water absorption on sloped terrain. 

I highly suggest the book Gaia’s Garden if you’re interested to learn more about home-scale permaculture.

16) Prioritize and compromise

When push comes to shove (say, if you’re facing mandatory water reductions or penalties) you may need to simply evaluate and choose what plants in your garden get first priority. For instance, we are fully prepared to let the existing ornamental shrubs in our front yard die if needed, while funneling our water use to our more valuable edibles and pollinator gardens instead. In fact, we already cut all the landscape irrigation in half from what the previous owners provided. I told the plants: “Sorry, but if you can’t hang with this, you aren’t meant for this California garden.” Some have died, and that’s okay.

On that note, don’t feel stuck keeping up a landscape that you inherited and doesn’t jive water-wise! We’ve removed plenty of established plants after moving to a new home.

The existing garden space at our new homestead had a lush catmint border along the center brick pathway. While it was beautiful at first, it became really infested with leafhoppers that were impossible to treat organically. Plus, even though catmint is native and drought tolerant, there were over 60 plants total – with a 1 gallon per hour drip emitter each! Under the previous owners watering schedule, just those catmint plants alone were using 420 gallons of water every week! Again, we’d already cut that schedule in half, but that’s still 200+ gallons of water that could be used for better things.

17) Reuse greywater

Last but not least, consider using recycled water in your garden! Sustainable greywater systems capture used water from household fixtures including sinks, showers, tubs and washing machines (but not toilets, dishwashers, or the kitchen sink – that’s blackwater). Instead of sending water down the drain to the sewer, it’s redirected to reuse in landscape irrigation.

Greywater systems are fantastic, but can be costly and complicated to install (especially if you don’t have a raised foundation). Since it requires retrofitting your home’s plumbing, engineering, permits, and skilled professionals are typically involved. So, the first step is to contact your local building department to see what the requirements are! Laundry-to-landscape greywater systems are usually the most straightforward and inexpensive to install, and often do not require elaborate permitting or engineering. 

And that concludes this lesson on ways to save water in the garden.

Well folks, if you made it to the end – good for you! Thank you so much for reading, and for caring about water conservation. If you found this information to be useful, please consider pinning or sharing this post! Also, don’t forget to consider all the ways you can save water indoors, and therefore offset some of your landscape water use too! Check out this great guide on indoor water conservation for some ideas.

Otherwise, you may also enjoy these related articles:

• Installing Drip Irrigation (Drip Tape) for Raised Garden Beds (video included)
• How to Install Drip Irrigation to a Hose Bib or Faucet (video included)
• How to Build a Raised Garden Bed (video included)
• Rainwater Harvesting 101: How to Set up a Rainwater Collection System
• How to Set Up Drip Irrigation for Containers, Wine Barrels, Grow Bags and More
• How to Remove or Kill Grass (and Grow Food, Not Lawns!)
• Garden Irrigation Solutions: DIY, Efficient, & Toxin-Free Watering Options
• Composting 101: 6 Ways to Compost at Home

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The post 17 Ways to Save Water in the Garden and Landscape appeared first on Homestead and Chill.

This article will cover three different options to set up drip irrigation for containers or pots:

• SECTION 1: First I’ll show you how to easily connect drip irrigation emitters to pots, wine barrels or other containers from an existing drip system. 

• SECTION 2: If you don’t have an existing drip line to connect to, we’ll also cover how to set up a brand new drip irrigation system for pots – right from an outdoor faucet or garden hose.

• SECTION 3: Finally, I’ll share how we set up a drip irrigation system for containers connected to existing PVC pipe.
  

Looking to set up drip irrigation for raised garden beds? See this tutorial on installing drip tape in raised beds, or this extra-easy raised bed drip system that connects to a spigot. Also, this guide covers more tips on gardening in wine barrels – including how to prep them for planting, soil, example plant spacing, and more.

Option 1: Connecting Drip Irrigation to Pots from an Existing Drip Line

If you already have an existing drip line nearby (you know, the ½” black irrigation tubing) then you’re in luck! That’s the easiest way to add drip irrigation to containers. If your ½” main line tubing is within 5 to 10 feet of your pots, you can simply add ¼” micro-tubing from the main line right into the containers. Follow the simple instructions below.

Or, if your existing drip ½” main line is a bit farther away, you can easily extend it to be closer to your pots. Simply cut the existing main line with sharp scissors, add a ½” coupler or tee, and then connect a new section of ½” irrigation tubing to extend the existing line where needed. Cap the open end of the new main line with a figure 8 clamp. Avoid distances much over 100 feet to maintain good pressure in the lines.

Supplies Needed

• ¼” microtubing
• ¼” barbed couplers or connectors
• Drip emitters of choice, such as 1 GPH or 2 GPH drippers, bubblers, or micro sprinklers.
• Irrigation hole punch tool
• To make a DIY drip emitter ring like ours (shown below), you’ll also need these 1/4″ barbed tees and this ¼” drip emitter tubing.
• Galvanized steel landscape staples to pin everything in place
• Optional: 1/4″ elbow connectors or 1/4″ shut off valves – explained and shown below

Instructions

1. Use an irrigation punch tool to add a hole to the ½” main line somewhere close to the pot or container you wish to water.
2. Insert one end of a barbed coupler into ¼” microtubing, and the other end into the hole you made in the mainline.
3. Run the micro-tubing over to the base of the pot and secure it there with a landscape staple. Then continue to run the tubing up the outside of the pot and into the top. Cut the microtubing where you wish to attach an emitter, such as at the base of a plant or in the center of the pot.
4. For an even more clean appearance, you can add a barbed elbow connector to the microtubing at the top rim of the pot, enabling it to sit more flush against it. Simply make a cut in the tubing at the top and insert the connector to create a corner (shown below).
5. Finally, attach a drip emitter of choice to the end of the microtubing. Emitter options explained more below. 
6. Pin everything in place with landscape staples.

Drip Emitter Options for Containers

It’s easy to customize a container drip irrigation system to meet the unique needs of your plants, climate, or pot size! However, it’s hard for me to say exactly how much you’ll need to water. There are just too many variables. In general, most plants prefer a consistent watering schedule that dampens the soil deeply, but is also allowed to dry out ever-so-lightly between watering. Plants breathe through their roots, so most do not enjoy constantly soggy soil. The emitters you choose and the duration you run your drip system will influence how much water each plant receives.

For larger containers or plants that enjoy ample moisture, use a bubbler or micro-spinkler (several if needed). Those offer a higher GPH flow and will water more surface area. For smaller pots or drought-tolerant plants, a single 1 GPH or 2 GPH drip emitter may be sufficient. 

You can also find specialized drip emitter rings that are made for watering containers – like this 5 inch ring, or this 10 inch option. Or, see how we make our own drip rings below! They can be customized to any pot size, including wine barrels or extra large grow bags. Another optional step is to add a 1/4″ valve to the line feeding each container so you can shut off water to individual pots if needed. 

Option 2: Creating a New Drip Irrigation System for Pots From a Faucet or Garden Hose 

It’s easy to set up a new drip irrigation system for pots from an outdoor faucet, or even connected right to the end of a garden hose. Zero plumbing skills are required! Though you’ll need a few additional supplies (plus those already listed above in Option 1):

Supplies

• ½” irrigation tubing (main line)
• This 4-in-1 adapter. It screws onto the faucet or garden hose on one end, and then has an adapter to connect the ½” irrigation tubing to the other. It also has a pressure reducer (required), filter, and backflow preventer. This is a very important piece. Drip irrigation systems must operate at 20 to 40 psi, and are also sensitive to debris. The pressure reducer and filter will prevent blowout and clogging respectively, and the backflow preventer will protect your household water supply from outdoor contaminants. 
• Figure 8 clamp to end the ½” main line. 
• Optional but highly recommended: a hose timer, which will automate your containers drip irrigation system! You can find hose timers with a single outlet, or those with two outlets: one for your drip line, and the second for your regular garden hose (or another drip line).
  

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Instructions

1. Choose a faucet or spigot near the containers you wish to irrigate. To maintain adequate pressure, no more than 100 feet away is ideal. See the note below for further distances.
2. Optional: Add a hose timer to the faucet. If not, you can simply turn the faucet on and off manually to water. 
3. Screw on the 4-in-1 adapter, and connect the ½” main line tubing to the end of the adapter.
4. Run the mainline along the base of your pots. You can bury the mainline under a few inches of soil, gravel or mulch to hide it. 
5. Cut and end the mainline using a figure 8 clamp.
6. Now, follow the instructions provided in Section 1 above to add microtubing and drip emitters to each container. 

Note: If your faucet is more than 100 feet away from your containers, attach a durable garden hose to the faucet first. Run it out towards the containers, and then screw on the 4-in-1 drip adapter at the far end of the garden hose (opposite the faucet). This way, the garden hose will maintain good (higher) pressure before it’s reduced at the adapter/drip connection. Hopefully you can keep the hose tucked away (e.g. alongside the house, or under shrubs) so it’s not a tripping hazard or eyesore. 

Option 3: Connecting Drip Irrigation for Containers to PVC

One final option to set up drip irrigation for pots is to connect a new drip line to PVC. We just recently did this in our new garden. We tapped into the PVC lines that water our raised garden beds to add drip for 6 nearby wine barrels. Check out the step-by-step photos below!

Supplies Needed

• ½” drip irrigation tubing (main line)
  
  
• Figure 8 clamp to end the ½” main line (unless you create a loop like we did).
  
  
• PVC glue, primer, and a pipe cutter (most likely)
  
  

• A pressure regulator, backflow preventer and filter. All drip irrigation systems must have the incoming water reduced down to 20 – 40 psi. A filter prevents debris from entering and clogging your drip system. A backflow device will stop soil and other contaminants from getting back into your household water supply. Our PVC system already had a filter, backflow preventer, and pressure regulator (40 psi) installed at the head assembly/start of the system. If your PVC system lacks these components, I suggest using this 4-in-1 adapter at your point of connection. Then you won’t need the adapter below. Note that it connects to a ¾” MHT PVC part (hose thread, not pipe thread).
  
  
• If your PVC line already has a pressure reducer, backflow preventer and filter upstream like ours, then all you need is a PVC-to-drip tubing adapter. This part will vary depending on the diameter of your PVC pipe and overall system configuration (e.g. glued vs threaded). For instance, we first attached (glued on) this 3/4″ threaded coupler to our PVC pipe. Next we screwed on this 3/4″ adapter that connects to 1/2″ tubing. Here is another adapter option with a shut-off valve included. Browse various drip tubing fittings from Drip Depot here. They’ll have what you need! If you’re new to irrigation, pay attention to hose thread versus pipe thread fittings for compatibility between parts (noted as MHT vs MPT). See photos and more details below.
  
  

• Finally, you’ll need the other supplies listed under Option 1. Such as ¼” microtubing, barbed couplings, drip emitters of choice, and optional valves for each container.

Instructions 

1. Find a PVC irrigation line near the containers you wish to irrigate. A dead end is ideal, though you could create a tee or dead end using various PVC couplings and fittings. Bring the line up to the soil surface with a riser if needed. A good pipe cutter and PVC glue will come in handy here. 
   
   
2. Connect the ½” drip line using an adapter that is compatible with your system (described in the supplies sections above).
   
   
3. Also add a pressure reducer, filter and backflow preventer if your system doesn’t already have those in place.
   
   
4. Now run your ½” main drip line to/around the base of your containers as needed. 
   
   
5. Follow the instructions provided in Option 1 to add microtubing, valves and various drip emitters to each container.  

And that is how to set up a drip irrigation system for containers and pots.

All in all, I understand that irrigation can feel a tad overwhelming at first. But it certainly isn’t anything to be afraid of! It’s mostly just puzzling pieces together. I hope this how-to makes you feel confident and comfortable to go set up a drip irrigation system for your containers too! We rely on ours so much. Feel free to ask any questions in the comments below. Also please considering sharing or pinning this article if you found it useful. Thank you so much for reading!

You may also like:

• How to Install Drip Irrigation to a Hose Bib or Faucet (video included)
• Installing Drip Irrigation for Raised Garden Beds (video included)
• Gardening in Wine Barrel Planters: The Ultimate Guide
• How to Build a Raised Garden Bed (video included)
• Rainwater Harvesting 101: How to Set up a Rainwater Collection System

The post How to Set Up Drip Irrigation for Pots, Wine Barrels, Containers appeared first on Homestead and Chill.

Follow along and learn how to set up drip irrigation for multiple raised garden beds. Our new raised bed drip irrigation system utilizes drip tape, but the skills you’ll learn today can easily be applied to other types of drip emitters too. This article and accompanying video will walk you through everything you need to know – from supplies to the step-by-step process – to feel confident to set up a similar drip system of your own. 

2023 Update: We also have a new easy raised bed drip irrigation tutorial here – one that connects right to a nearby hose spigot.

In this article you will find:

• A brief introduction to drip tape irrigation, including frequently asked questions and best practices about spacing, timing, pressure, and winterizing.
  
  
• A list of supplies needed to set up drip irrigation to raised garden beds. Nearly everything on this list was purchased through Drip Depot. We’ve been long-time Drip Depot customers, and I recently signed up as an affiliate with them as well. So, we’ll receive a small commission if you shop through our links – which is greatly appreciated and supports our work!
  
  
• A YouTube video. I will walk you through the supplies and process of installing drip irrigation for raised garden beds using drip tape. I also show a quick demo of how to glue PVC pipe, and a few other styles of raised bed drip irrigation systems too. If irrigation feels intimidating or confusing to you, it may be best to start by watching the video and then come back to digest everything else!
  
  
• A written summary of the steps shown in the video, with plenty of photos of our drip system install.
  
  
• Notes for alternative options for installing drip irrigation to raised garden beds (such as using standard ½” irrigation tubing and emitters rather than drip tape). 

Jump straight to the video here.

Drip Irrigation Saves!

Did you know that automatic drip irrigation systems not only save you time and energy, but also save water? Studies show that drip irrigation can save up to 70% more water than overhead sprinkler systems. Rather than spraying everything down willy-nilly, drip irrigation delivers targeted water right at the base of plants and soil. This reduces waste, runoff, and evaporation. 

Not to mention, drip irrigation is more efficient and effective at watering plants deeply, rather than only wetting the top few inches of the soil. Deep water means deeper roots, and more resilient, drought-tolerant, and robust plants. All in all, drip irrigation is a win-win – for you, your wallet, plants, and the planet.

What is drip tape?

Drip tape is essentially a flattened version of drip tubing. It lays flat on the soil surface but puffs up once it’s pressurized and full of water. Drip tape comes with drip emitters pre-installed at a set spacing, such as every 6, 9, 12, 18, or 24 inches apart. Each individual emitter will emit a set quantity of water – from 0.25 gallons per hour (GPH) up to 1 GPH depending on the type of drip tape you choose. Drip tape operates at a lower water pressure (8-15 psi) than standard drip irrigation (20-40 psi). 

It’s important to note that not all drip tape is created equal. In fact, drip tape often gets a bad rap as being short-lived or even “disposable” because of the way it’s commonly used in big ag. Yet the lifespan of drip tape depends on the quality and thickness of the tape used. We chose the thickest commercial-quality drip tape we could find (15 mil), rated to last up to 10 years when taken care of! 

Why we chose drip tape

We chose to use drip tape in our raised bed drip irrigation system for a number of reasons:

1. I love the convenience of pre-installed emitters, rather than punching holes and adding emitters to solid ½” irrigation tubing as we’ve done in the past. 
   
   
2. I also like the close emitter spacing that drip tape offers. Our drip tape has emitters every 6 inches. There is another style of round drip tubing with pre-installed emitters (like this one). But from what I saw, 9 inches was the closest emitter spacing available in that type. We’ll talk more about spacing below.
   
   
3. Drip tape has the reputation of being less prone to clogging than other types of emitter tubing. Drip tape is well-designed not to clog, even when buried below soil or mulch! It was highly recommended by a friend of mine who does professional garden installation and maintenance.

Can you cover or bury drip tape irrigation?

Yes! Drip tape can be installed on the soil surface, buried up to a foot below the soil, or covered with mulch without clogging. Even better, covering drip tape (or other drip irrigation components) can offer protection from sun damage and temperature extremes, thereby extending its lifespan. 

In order to keep the very top of our soil well-irrigated, we plan to keep our drip tape fairly close to the soil surface but will cover it with a little soil and mulch. No matter how you choose to install your drip tape lines, be sure that the emitters face upwards.

Spacing drip irrigation in raised garden beds

I recommend spacing drip irrigation in raised garden beds in a way that evenly saturates the whole bed, with the rows no wider than 12” apart. After all, one of the many benefits of growing in raised beds is that you don’t have to follow rigid row planting, unlike traditional field row crops. Plus, the more damp soil there is around, the more the worms, nematodes, and beneficial microbes will thrive! Last but not least, watering in a wide swath around plants (as opposed to directly at their base only) encourages roots to explore, growing larger and wider. That leads to bigger, healthier plants!

In our 4×8’ raised garden beds, we installed the drip lines about 9 inches apart evenly across the bed – or four lines total per bed. Each row of drip tape has .25 gph emitters every 6 inches. This spacing will provide a nice even distribution of water across the entire bed, allowing us to plant along the drip lines or in between. It will be especially great for closely-spaced plantings like root veggies.

It’s best to position the header in one short end of your raised garden bed. Then attach the drip tape (or other drip tubing and emitters) from the header down the length of the garden bed.

How long should I run drip irrigation in raised garden beds?

It depends! Every garden will have different water demands based on the unique climate, season, temperatures and rainfall patterns. It also depends on your mulching practices, and how thirsty your plants are. Larger, mature plants generally “drink” more water than smaller ones. Soil protected with a nice 2 to 4″ layer of mulch will stay damp much longer than bare soil, greatly reducing water needs.

In general, it best to provide less frequent, deep, long watering as opposed to short shallow bouts of water every day. This will encourage deep healthy roots and stronger, more resilient plants. Try to water enough to keep the soil evenly moist at all times, but allow it to dry out ever-so-slightly between watering. Of course, you never want the soil to be totally dry! But remember that plants breathe through their roots – so the soil shouldn’t be constantly sopping wet either.

In our climate, we typically run our raised bed drip irrigation system for about an hour twice per week. The time you run your system will also vary depending on the type of emitters used. For instance, if we were using drip tape with .5 gph emitters (instead of .25 gph), we could run the system for half the amount of time.

When direct-sowing seeds, plan to provide additional overhead or hand-watering during the first few weeks. That will help keep the top of the soil nice and damp during germination and early root development.

Winterizing a raised bed drip irrigation system

As with all types of irrigation, it’s best to winterize your raised bed drip irrigation system before freezing conditions arise. At minimum, thoroughly drain the system and protect it with a nice deep layer of mulch. Leaving standing water in pipes or valves can cause them to crack when the water freezes and expands.

Or, to further reduce the risk of damage, folks in extremely cold climates may want to remove the drip irrigation components completely – storing them in a protected location over winter. There is no need to take the whole system apart however! Use a threaded adapter at the point of connection in each raised bed. Then you can simply unscrew it, remove the entire header and attached drip lines together in one piece, and hang it in the garage (or something similar). 

Understanding water pressure in drip irrigation systems

Average household water pressure is around 40 to 60 pounds per square inch, also known as PSI. That is an ideal pressure for sinks, showers and outdoor hose bibs. Yet drip irrigation systems cannot handle such high water pressure. Too much pressure can cause “blowouts” or damage. Therefore, you’ll likely need to add a pressure reducer to your raised bed drip irrigation system. 

The best operating pressure for standard drip irrigation tubing and emitters is between 20 to 40 psi. Most times, one pressure reducer at the start of the system is adequate (e.g. where it connects to a faucet or control valve). Our main irrigation valves already had 40 psi pressure reducers installed at the head assembly. Note that lengths of over 100 feet of standard ½” irrigation tubing may start to lose pressure at the farthest end. 

Yet drip tape needs even lower pressure, from 8 to 15 psi, depending on the thickness and specifications of the chosen drip tape. ***In order to maintain good water pressure throughout our large garden space, we kept our main PVC lines at 40 psi but then added a 15 psi pressure regulator inside each raised bed before connecting drip tape.*** 

Supplies Needed for a Raised Bed Drip Irrigation System

Below is a list of the supplies needed to create a drip irrigation system for raised garden beds using drip tape. At the end, I also noted a few alternative supplies and adjustments if you prefer to use standard ½” drip tubing instead of drip tape. 

1. A main water supply. We ran PVC to each raised bed, and then converted to drip tubing within each bed. However, you can easily run the same type of drip tape irrigation system from a regular faucet or hose bib. This article and video will show you how to attach drip to a hose bib with an automated timer.

2. Standard ½” irrigation tubing, which you can buy here in 50 to 1,000-foot rolls. This will be used to create the main “header” that the drip tape lines will attach to. 

3. An adapter to connect the ½” drip tubing to your main water supply. We used this adapter to convert from threaded ¾” PVC pipe to ½” irrigation tubing (which has an option for ½” threaded pipe size under the same link). On the other hand, this 4-in-1 adapter is ideal to attach drip to a regular faucet or hose bib instead. It includes a pressure reducer, backflow device, filter, and drip tubing connector. 

4. Optional but recommended: a valve to control or turn off each raised bed individually. Our PVC-to-drip adapter (described just above) has a valve already included. However, you can buy these separate valves to install within your ½” tubing too. 

5. Pressure reducers. Standard drip systems should be reduced between 20 to 40 psi, which can occur at the main connection (such as at a hose bibb or irrigation valve). Our main irrigation valves already had 40 psi pressure reducers installed. Systems using drip tape must be further reduced to 8 to 15 psi (check your drip tape specifications) so we added an additional 15 psi pressure regulator at each bed. Note that our regulator is made to connect to ¾” pipe thread, but other sizes are available. 

6. Elbows and/or tee connectors to create the header. We prefer these Perma-loc connectors that screw on over the tubing. They can easily be disconnected as needed for repairs or changes. Rather, these common compression-style connectors are more permanent; things need to be cut apart to make changes.

7. Drip tape of choice. We used this heavy-duty 15 mil drip tape with 0.25 gph emitters every 6 inches. The 0.5 gph would be ideal for raised beds too! Drip tape comes in rolls of 100, 500, 1000 feet or more. Run some quick math to determine how much you need. For example, we installed (4) 8-foot rows per 4×8’ bed. So that’s 32 feet per bed X 16 beds (plus a few smaller beds) = about 600 feet. See above for more info on spacing.

8. Barbed adapters. We used these 3.6 mm barb adapters to connect the ⅝” drip tape to the ½” header tubing. 
   

9. End caps or clamps. We use figure 8 clamps to end the ½” irrigation tubing header. These closure clips are what we used to end each line of drip tape.
   
   
10. A punch tool. Used to add holes to the ½” irrigation tubing and then connect various adapters or drip emitters to. Here is a simple hand punch, or this option is similar to what we use.
    
    
11. Stakes, pins or galvanized landscape staples to hold everything in place. 
    

12. If you’re working with PVC, you’ll need PVC primer, glue, and a good set of ratchet-style pipe cutters.
    
    
13. Optional: a timer or controller to automate the system. Our orchard, existing garden, and new raised bed drip irrigation systems are connected to a solar-powered Hunter 6-station controller. The other drip systems we run from hose bibs have this simple faucet timer.
    
    
14. A backflow preventer and filter. It’s best practice to have a backflow prevention device to stop soil or other contaminants from getting back into your household water supply. Similarly, a filter will prevent debris from entering and clogging your drip irrigation system. There are a few backflow preventer options, depending on your main water supply connection. Hard-piped systems like ours usually have a filter and backflow preventer within the mainline head assembly. Or if you are connecting to a hose bib, use a 4-in-1 faucet adapter – which has a backflow device, filter, pressure reducer and drip connection. You can add a timer too! See photos of both below.
    

Alternate drip supplies: 

If you’d rather use ½” irrigation tubing to create rows instead of drip tape, there are a few adjustments you’ll need to make. One, you can create the main header (just like ours) but use 3/4” poly tubing instead of half-inch tubing for the header. Then, use these barbed adapters to connect ½” tubing to it. Keep in mind you’ll need to purchase 3/4” connectors, elbows, and other adapters for your header assembly in this case.

Another option is to still use ½” tubing in your header, but cut it and install tees every 8-12 inches to attach the lateral lines to. From there, you can connect either pre-perforated ½” drip tubing like this, or regular solid ½” tubing with your own emitters added, such as  1 GPH or 2 GPH drip emitters, or connect micro-sprinklers or bubblers with ¼” micro-tubing. Or, you could even connect 1/4″ drip tubing to a 1/2″ header, shown below.

Installing Drip Irrigation In Raised Garden Beds (video)

Now, please enjoy this video demonstration that will walk you through the installation process. Then, keep scrolling for a written summary and additional photos of our system. Before getting started creating your own raised bed drip irrigation system, draw it all out! That will help you visualize the system as well as develop a list of the parts you need.

Steps to Set Up Drip Irrigation in Raised Garden Beds (written summary)

1) Run water supply lines to each raised garden bed

The main water supply lines may be PVC, other hard piping, or ½” black drip tubing itself. One option is to add water lines and risers concealed under/inside every raised bed, either before the garden beds are installed or trenched under existing beds after-the-fact. Or, simply run the water lines up the outside of the bed wall.

After construction or modifications, flush the main water lines to remove any debris before connecting drip irrigation components or valves. Simply turn them on and let the water run for a few minutes. Keep the lines elevated or otherwise protected from anything getting back in during the process. 

Notes on our water line installation:

You’ll see in the photos that we installed our PVC lines on top landscape fabric, under several inches of gravel. However, please keep in mind we live in a mild climate that doesn’t freeze over winter. It also doesn’t get all that hot in summer! Otherwise, it’s best practice in most places to trench and bury pipes at least 6 inches minimum (usually 12″ to 18”) to protect them from freezing or temperature extremes. Therefore, please look into the best practices for irrigation water line installation in your climate. 

To offset how shallowly we installed the supply lines, we used schedule 80 PVC (grey) rather than schedule 40 (white). Schedule 80 is thicker, more resilient to temperature swings, and UV-resistant. Unlike white PVC, it won’t get brittle and crack from sun damage. Therefore, schedule 80 is recommended for above-ground installations (or in situations similar to ours). It is more expensive than schedule 40, so only use it if you have to.

2) Convert from the main water supply lines to drip

Next, use an appropriate adapter for your system to connect the main water supply lines to ½” drip irrigation tubing. (That is, unless you’re already using 1/2″ irrigation tubing for your supply lines). The right adapter will depend on your particular supply lines (various sizes of PVC, other hard-piping, a hose bib, etc) as discussed above and in the video. To use the same adapter we used, you’ll want your PVC point-of-connection to have a threaded female fitting. The adapter is available for either 1/2″ or 3/4″ threaded PVC connections, but be sure to choose the 1/2″ Perma-loc size!

3) Assemble the header and drip tape lines

If you’re installing drip irrigation in multiple raised garden beds of the same size, I recommend making one header in/near the garden bed to be sure everything fits and is spaced the way you like it. Then, use that header as your guide or prototype and assemble the remaining headers in a clean work space. (Such as a concrete patio. We even put some together on our dining table.) That way, there is less risk of getting soil inside the parts as you work – which can clog your emitters!

• Measure and cut the solid 1/2″ poly tubing to fit inside one short end of your raised bed. If you’re using figure 8 end clamps like us, leave a couple inches extra to fold over.
• Measure and cut the smaller/side section of the header that will connect to the main water supply/adapter.
• Connect the pieces of header tubing with elbow connectors.
• Measure and mark where you want each row of drip tape to attach, spaced evenly in the bed (between 6 to 12 inches apart).
• Use a punch tool to create holes in the main header tubing. Be sure the holes are oriented in a way that will have the drip tape laying flat on the soil surface.
• Insert barbed adapters into the holes.
• Attach drip tape. Completely loosen the perma-loc nut (exposing as much of the barb as possible), slip the drip tubing over the barb, then hold it in place while you tighten the nut down over it. Remember, keep the emitters facing UP!
• Add end caps/clips to both the main header line and drip tape lines.

4) Install the drip system – and enjoy!

Finally, install your new drip irrigation in the raised garden beds. Pin everything in place with landscape staples. Connect your header to the main water supply, and turn on the system to test it. Tighten or adjust any leaky connections as needed. Cover the drip components with a little soil or mulch if desired to protect it from sun. Now you can sit back, relax, and enjoy your brand new easy, efficient, time-saving raised bed drip irrigation system!

And that concludes this lesson on how to set up drip irrigation in raised beds!

Well folks, I realize I just shared quite a bit of information to digest. Who knew irrigation could be so dry? But now your garden beds should be the opposite of dry! I hope this article took some of the mystery out irrigation for you. I also hope you now feel prepared and comfortable to install drip irrigation in raised garden beds of your own! Please feel free to ask any questions in the comments below. If you found this information to be valuable, please spread the love by pinning or sharing this post. Thank you so much for tuning in, and happy watering!

You may like these related articles:

• How to Install Drip Irrigation to a Hose Bib or Faucet (video included)
• How to Build a Raised Garden Bed (video included)
• 17 Ways to Save Water in the Garden and Landscape
• Rainwater Harvesting 101: How to Set up a Rainwater Collection System
• How to Remove or Kill Grass (and Grow Food, Not Lawns!)

The post How to Install Drip Irrigation in Raised Garden Beds (Drip Tape) appeared first on Homestead and Chill.

Even better, I will show you how to automate the system. You won’t even have to think about watering once it’s installed! As far as “installation” goes, do not be intimidated. Zero plumbing skills are required to connect drip irrigation to a hose bibb, I promise.

2023 Update: We now have a tutorial on how to connect an easy drip irrigation system to raised garden beds from a faucet or spigot! Check it out here.

In this article you will find:

• A list of supplies needed for the project. We found most of them at our local hardware store, but I’ll provide links to the same (or similar) items below.
• A YouTube video that will walk you through the step-by-step process of connecting drip irrigation to a garden hose bibb. It also shows how to set up the drip irrigation system itself, such as adding various types of drip emitters to the line.
• A written summary of the steps shown in the video, with photos for quick and easy reference.
• If you’re interested in installing drip irrigation in raised garden beds from a hose bib, check out this post (how to install drip tape irrigation in the beds themselves) after browsing this article.

Supplies Needed to Connect Drip Irrigation to a Hose Bibb or Faucet

1. A nearby hose bibb (spigot or faucet). Anything within 50 feet or so from the area you wish to irrigate will work. (Hint: you can also connect this whole assembly to the end of a garden hose, not just the hose bibb, which can further extend your distance.)
   
   
2. A faucet adapter, which is specifically designed to connect drip irrigation to a hose bib. This part is very important! The adapters contain a pressure reducer, a filter, and a port to connect ½” irrigation tubing. Sometimes they include a backflow preventer too. Drip irrigation systems aren’t meant to handle the high pressure that comes out of your faucet without reducing it first (down to 20-25 psi). The filter prevents debris from entering and potentially clogging your drip irrigation system.
   
   
3. A backflow preventer. It’s best to have a backflow prevention device in any irrigation system to prevent contaminants from entering your water supply. I didn’t use one in this demonstration project/video because we’re using a dedicated irrigation line (separate from our house water) that already has a backflow device installed upstream. If you do not have a backflow preventer already installed, either use a 4-in-1 faucet adapter that has a backflow device included, OR attach a simple vacuum breaker to your hose bibb before screwing on the 3-in-1 adapter I used in the demo.
   
   
4. Standard ½” irrigation tubing, which is commonly available in 100 foot rolls. 
   
   
5. Drip emitters of choice, such as 1 GPH or 2 GPH drip emitters. You can also connect higher-output micro-sprinklers, bubblers, “goof plugs”, or any other compatible drip attachments to this DIY drip irrigation system.
   
   
6. A punch tool, used to add holes and attach emitters to the ½” black supply line. We used a simple hand punch in the video, but this option is much easier to use!

A note about ½” irrigation tubing options and pressure

I should note that it’s industry “best practice” to not surpass over 100 feet of standard solid irrigation tubing as the system may start to lose pressure at the end of longer runs. However, we’ve admittedly run irrigation tubing much farther… maybe up to 250 feet. The far end did have slightly less pressure than the beginning, but it still did the job! You can also add higher flow (GPH) emitters towards the end to compensate if needed. For very large areas (where more than 200-300 feet of line is needed), it’s best to split the system into separate lines that will run at different times if possible – like we’re doing via our 2-outlet hose timer. 

Also note that there are different types of ½” drip tubing available, such as “pressure compensating” tubing. It has pre-installed emitters in the line every so often, such as every 9 inches, 12 inches, 18 inches, and so on. That type of irrigation tubing can maintain even pressure in much longer distances than standard tubing. Yet it limits how much you can customize the system and water output.

Optional Supplies

• A battery-operated garden hose timer, which will easily automate the system for you! In this particular project, we used a 2-outlet hose timer. That way, we can eventually connect a separate drip line to the other port – which will also allow us to break up our very long fenceline into two shorter irrigation lines. We use single outlet hose timers in other areas. Simply leave the main faucet ON, set the timer, and it will allow water to flow through to your drip system at the time and duration you designated. It’s a total life-saver!
  
  
• A hose splitter or Y-valve. With this, you can connect the drip irrigation system to a hose bibb (on one side of the splitter) while also still maintaining a free outlet for a garden hose, to fill watering cans, etc.
  
  
• Galvanized landscape staples to hold the drip line in place.
  
  
• Figure 8 clamp to end the main ½” supply line. (Or crimp the end of the line by folding it back over itself and wrapping it tightly with duct tape.)
  
  
• ¼” drip irrigation micro-tubing, which is useful to a) provide water to an area not immediately adjacent to your main ½” line, b) run emitters up into pots or containers, or c) connect microspinklers or bubblers instead of standard drip emitters.
  
  
• ½” tubing connection tees or other couplings, if you wish to create lateral runs off your main ½” drip irrigation supply line (e.g. not just have one straight line). Simply cut the black tubing and firmly insert it into the connectors to create the configuration you desire. 

Now that we’ve gone over all the supplies needed to connect drip irrigation to a hose bibb or spigot, let’s see how to set it all up!

Connecting a Drip Irrigation System to a Hose Bibb (Demonstration Video)

How to Attach a Drip Irrigation System to a Hose Bibb or Spigot (Written Summary)

Step 1: Add a Drip Adapter to the Hose Bib 

Begin by deciding exactly how you’d like to connect your drip irrigation to the hose bibb or spigot. Feel free to follow one of the configuration examples shown below. For instance, if you’d like to include a Y-valve or hose timer. The most basic installation is to connect the faucet adapter right to your hose bibb, where you’d manually turn the faucet on or off to run the drip system. Attach the ½” irrigation tubing (supply line) to the adapter by firmly pressing it into the barbed outlet. (Some adapters may have a screw-down clamp connection instead).

Though they’re made to be outside, protecting your hose timer from direct sun exposure can help prolong its life. Sun and heat make plastic brittle over time. Therefore, consider covering the timer with an old cloth or bucket to shield it.  

Step 2: Lay Out the Supply Line

Next, lay out the ½” irrigation tubing supply line to the area you want to deliver water. It’s best to keep the supply line centered in the landscaped area, or close to the base of plants. Secure the supply line to the ground with landscape staples or hooked stakes. We typically work ours down under the layer of bark mulch (if present) to hide the main line, but wait to do this until after we’ve installed all our drip emitters. 

Decide where you want the drip irrigation system to end. Use sharp scissors to cut the tubing. Before capping the end of your line, you may want to turn on the water to flush it out and clear any debris first. (Especially if you suspect dirt got into the end of the line while you were laying it out.) Once cleared, use a figure 8 clamp to crimp and end the line. Or, fold the end of the line back over itself and secure it with sturdy tape. 

Step 3: Add Drip Emitters

Now it is time to add your drip emitters of choice. To install the drip emitters along the main irrigation supply line, use a punch tool to create small holes in the tubing at the desired locations. Carefully support the tubing as you use the punch, being cautious to not push all the way through both sides of the tube. Insert the barbed end of the drip emitter into the hole and twist it into place. 

Alternatively, you can supply water to an area further away from the main line via microtubing. Use a connector with barbs on each end to attach ¼” microtubing to the main supply line. Then cut the microtubing to the desired length and add a drip emitter to the opposite end of the tubing. This is a great way to water containers or pots from a drip irrigation system connected to a hose bibb. We’ve also used bubblers or micro-sprinklers to deliver more water (and a larger surface area) to trees on the same drip irrigation system as other plants with lower water needs. 

Drip emitter options & irrigation frequency

Drip emitters come in various flow rates, typically listed in gallons per hour (GPH). What you choose to use will be based on your unique irrigation needs. For instance, your climate, the types of plants you’re growing, and the duration and frequency you plan to run your drip line. It may take a little research to figure out how much water each plant needs. Check out this quick and helpful irrigation guide from University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Or, see this more detailed article about watering newly planted trees and shrubs from the University of Minnesota.

In this freshly landscaped area, we installed 2 GPH emitters and run the system for one hour every 3 days (for now). It is currently our warmest season (September-October), and we do not receive any rain here except in the winter months. We’ll turn the system off or down once rain comes. Also, we’ll likely lessen the duration and/or frequency once the plants are more established. We installed one emitter per perennial shrub (verbena, salvia, pincushion, sweet bay laurel) since they’re all fairly drought-tolerant. The edible shrubs and fruit trees (pineapple guava, mulberry, pomegranates, Meyer lemons) all received two emitters – one on each side of their root ball.

Ongoing maintenance

Check your irrigation system periodically to ensure everything is functioning properly. Is the soil moist where desired? Do any plants seem stressed – signaling they may need more or less water? It’s easy to modify your system by adding additional drip emitters, upgrading certain areas to higher-output bubblers, or to cut back water by reducing the time or frequency. If you’re using an automatic timer, be sure to check the batteries on occasion! You could also consider upgrading to a solar-powered hose timer.

Now turn on your new DIY irrigation system and enjoy easy, efficient watering!

Well friends, what do you think? I told you it was going to be simple. All in all, I hope this tutorial makes you feel confident to get out there and connect drip irrigation to a hose bibb yourself. Drip is the most efficient (plant and planet-friendly) type of irrigation you can use after all! I also hope your newfound knowledge empowers you to spruce up neglected areas in your yard where a “lack of water” was previously holding you back. If you found this post to be valuable, please feel free to pin or share it. Let us know if you have any questions in the comments below. Happy landscaping!

You may also enjoy these articles:

• Installing Drip Irrigation in Raised Garden Beds (Drip Tape)
• How to Remove or Kill Grass (and Grow Food, Not Lawns!)
• How to Build a Raised Garden Bed (video included)
• 17 Ways to Save Water in the Garden and Landscape
• Rainwater Harvesting 101: How to Set up a Rainwater Collection System
• Top 23 Plants for Pollinators: Attract Bees, Butterflies and Hummingbirds
• How to Plant a Tree: Best Practices for Healthy Happy Trees

The post How to Connect Drip Irrigation to a Hose Bibb (Spigot or Faucet) appeared first on Homestead and Chill.

Read long to learn the basics of rainwater harvesting, including tips for setting up and using a basic rainwater collection system at home. This article covers rainwater tank options, supplies, and info to help choose what type of system may best suit your climate or needs. We’ll go over frequently asked questions – such as rainwater collection laws, water contamination and bacteria concerns, mosquito breeding, how to keep rainwater tanks clean, and more. 

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links to products for your convenience, such as items on Amazon. Homestead and Chill gains a small commission from purchases made through those links, at no additional cost to you.

GETTING STARTED WITH RAINWATER COLLECTION

Rainwater Harvesting Laws

Before you get started, make sure you can legally collect rainwater at all! As crazy as it sounds, capturing rainwater is illegal in some places. Therefore, check with your local and state laws before investing in rainwater tanks. Here is a list of rainwater-related laws by state in the US. Thankfully, rainwater harvesting is legal and encouraged in most locations. 

What Size Rainwater Tank Should I Get?

The answer to this question depends on several things, including what you intend to use the rainwater for, and perhaps most importantly: your climate. If you get frequent rain throughout the year, you can get by with fewer and smaller tanks – such as average 50-gallon drums. As you use the water, the tanks are able to refill more often with periodic rain. 

In contrast, some places have a distinct “rainy season” with otherwise dry weather the rest of the year. For example, it only rains during the winter here on the Central Coast of CA. Therefore, we need enough tank capacity to catch and store as much rainwater as possible during our short 4-month rainy season – to last until next winter. One 50-gallon barrel would not last us long!

To take full advantage of our limited rain supply, we have one smaller 140-gallon rain barrel and two large 530-gallon “slimline” rain tanks – for a total of nearly 1300 gallons of rainwater storage capacity on this homestead! We’ll talk more about various tank options below.

Roof Surface Area vs Tank Size

Assuming that you’re planning to catch rainwater that falls on your roof, keep in mind that your rainwater tanks will fill up WAY quicker than you’d expect them too. A storm that dumps one inch of rain does NOT mean that you will collect one inch of rain in your rainwater tank. To figure out how much rain you could collect in a storm, consider the entire surface area that the rain falls on and is collected from.  

Consider this example scenario:

• Say you have a 2,000 square foot house.
• Your roof has a pitch in the middle. If you hook up a rain barrel to a gutter downspout on one side of the house, you are capturing the rain that falls on that one half of the roof – maybe 1000 square feet. Let’s say the approximate size of the roof is 50’ x 20’.
• A nice little storm comes through with 1 inch of rainfall. 
• If you convert your 50’ x 20’ roof area to inches, it is 600” x 240”. Multiply that by the 1” of rain to get the volume of rainwater in cubic inches. 600” x 240” x 1” = 144,000 cubic inches of rain.
• The standard conversion for water is 1 gallon = 231 cubic inches. Thus, if we divide 144,000 by 231, that means….

…it is possible to capture up to 623 gallons of water from a 1000 square-foot roof in just a single 1-inch rainstorm!

As you can see, a modest 50-gallon rain barrel is going to overflow very fast. Plus, right after a storm, you don’t need to water anything outside! So the barrel will sit full, and overflow with every subsequent storm. That is all precious rainwater you could otherwise be capturing.

Different Types of Rainwater Collection Barrels or Tanks

Rainwater collection tanks come in all shapes and sizes. Really! Some tanks have a classic cylinder shape, or some more angular, designed to fit into corners. Our 530-gallon slimline rain tanks look like giant Cheez-Its, with sections missing in the middle for structural support. Other rainwater collection systems are less rigid, such as giant bladder or bag-type containers designed to fit in the space under a house or deck. Some rain tank are available in BPA-free drinking-water grade plastic (further discussed in the contamination section to follow).

Sizes range from 50-gallon barrels to massive 5,000 gallon water tanks and beyond. Many folks daisy-chain multiple smaller containers together by either connecting them with pipes at the bottom, or allowing them to overflow into each other – cascading from one tank to the next. When our tanks are overflowing, we store excess rainwater in 5-gallon buckets and large trash cans too. 

Truth be told, any type of sturdy water storage tank, barrel or container could be used for rainwater storage tank! Especially if you are handy and able to retrofit it to have the components described below.

No matter the size or shape, a rainwater collection tank should ideally have all these common elements:

• An inlet or downspout to direct the rainwater into the tank, generally on top but covered with a screen.
• An outlet that allows you to dispense and use the collected rainwater, usually near the bottom. For large tanks, a hose bib that you can connect a hose to is ideal.
• Made of a non-transparent material that does not allow sunlight through, unless you can completely cover it with a tarp (or paint) to block the sunlight. Sunlight + Water = Algae.
• Have fine-mesh screens securely in place over all openings to prevent the entry of insects, pests, or debris.

Where Can I Buy Rainwater Barrels or Tanks?

Check with your local water tank supply company. These businesses carry large water tanks primarily designed for drinking or irrigation water storage, such as for a rural home or farm. Again, you could convert most traditional water tanks for rainwater storage quite easily. Or, perhaps they’ll carry tanks specifically designed for rainwater harvesting systems too! If they don’t have what you’re looking for on hand, ask about the options and availability of special orders.

Both large and modest-sized rainwater tanks are available to purchase online too. However, it may be expensive to ship big tanks, so going local could save you a bundle! We were able to find our rainwater tanks at a water tank company, but later noticed they also carry many of the same tanks at our local Farm Supply store as well. 

Is the Cost of a Rainwater Collection System “Worth It”?

That is ultimately a personal decision, determined by your situation and motives. Depending on the cost of your regular water supply versus the expense of setting up a water collection system, it may take several years to “pay off” or equal out. Yet for some, harvesting rainwater isn’t just about saving money.

Some people like to collect rainwater for environmental and ethical reasons – to feel good about offsetting at least a portion of their water use. Especially in areas where water is scarce and/or expensive. Others have a strong desire to have a supply of easily accessible chlorine-free water, like my friend with a serious orchid and tillandsia hobby. Additionally, some folks feel more self-sufficient and secure to have water stored at home in case of emergencies. Our motives are inline with all of the above. On the other hand, some places utilize rainwater as their primary source of household water!

SETTING UP A RAINWATER HARVESTING SYSTEM

Here are a few important factors to consider as you choose your rainwater tank and figure out your collection system design. 

Location for a Rainwater Tank

Choose a location near a gutter downspout for easy filling. Yet depending on the size of your tank or layout of your property, that may not always be feasible. If needed, it’s possible to add downward-sloping runs of gutter or pipes to passively transfer the rainwater from the roof area to a tank in the general vicinity. We installed section of gutter that delivers our rainwater over our chicken run and into a tank inlet about 12 feet away. Another more complex option is to pump the water from a small collection area into a larger tank. 

It also ideal to locate the tank somewhere convenient to access and use the rainwater, such as to fill up a watering can. That is, unless you intend to pump it to the point-of-use. The tank should be located on a sturdy and level foundation or base. Thankfully, most water tanks are so heavy once they are full that it would be very difficult for them to topple over. Support straps are recommended for those elevated on platforms.

Take Advantage of Gravity: Head Pressure

If you look through images of rainwater collection systems, you may notice many smaller tanks are elevated on a sturdy, level platform. This serves two purposes:

One, most tanks have a tap or spigot at the bottom. In order to fill a watering can or bucket, you need some space below that tap to fit the container.  Plan to elevate your tank at least slightly if you don’t intend to use a pump and have a fairly small tank.

Two, elevating a tank takes advantage of gravity. Water is heavy and exerts weight, pressing down on itself. This is referred to as “head pressure”. The larger the volume of water and the taller or higher the tank, the more head pressure it exerts. This means that a very large, tall tank will create enough head pressure to potentially connect a hose to – and have the water run through it at a decent rate. However, do not expect to connect a full-blown irrigation system to a rainwater tank without the assistance of a booster pump, unless perhaps it all runs downhill from the tank.

On the other hand, smaller and shorter tanks exude less head pressure. Thus, if a small rainwater tank sits directly on the ground, you likely would not be able to connect a hose to a tap at the bottom and get enough pressure to fill containers (let alone water with a hose directly from the tank) – as the hose would have to go upwards to get into a container. The weak water pressure will not be able to overcome the force of gravity, or will trickle very slowly. 

Keeping Your Rainwater Tank Clean with Screens

The best way to keep your rainwater tanks clean is to prevent the entry of debris in the first place! To prevent junk from getting in your rain tanks, it is important they have fine-mesh screens at the inlet. The screens should be fine enough to keep out leaves, sloughing from asphalt roof shingles, insects, or other small critters. One of the perks of using a tank designed especially for rainwater harvesting is that they typically come equipped with screens. See the photo of our rain tank screens below.

In addition to screens on the tank itself, you likely also want to add initial screens to the gutters or downspout to catch leaves, twigs, or other larger material before reaching the tank screen – which also helps keep that area more clean. 

First Flush Diverters

A step beyond screens is to add a “first flush diverter” (aka roof washer) to your rainwater collection system. A first flush diverter is a contraption that redirects the first purge of water coming from the roof during a storm away from the rainwater tank. This essentially washes away and prevents capturing the sediment, dirt, and debris that has accumulated on the roof since the last rain.

We do not have first flush diverters. However, they’re highly recommend for folks who receive excessive roof debris, or anyone interested in potentially drinking their rainwater. We’ll talk about drinking rainwater in a moment, along with routine tank maintenance and cleaning.

How to Prevent Algae in Your Rainwater Tank

Algae is a common concern in any water storage tank. As we already briefly discussed, the best way to prevent algal growth in your rainwater tank is to always use an opaque tank that does not allow sunlight in. Even then, a small amount of algae may be introduced from roof runoff, but will not be able to flourish inside. Other ways to combat algae include treating the water with chlorine or other algaecide additives. In my opinion, that sort of defeats the purpose of collecting pure water. Even after sitting in our tanks for nearly 9 months, our rainwater has only a very slight green tinge to it!

Can I Capture Rainwater If I Don’t Have Gutters?

Yes! You can totally set up a rainwater harvesting system even if you don’t have gutters. Our house doesn’t. All you need to do is find a location along your roof line (assuming it is sloped) where rainwater naturally collects and streams down most heavily. This will commonly be in a corner, or at the low point of a valley in the roof. Then, create your own little gutter or downspout! 

In our front yard, we fashioned up an old copper funnel attached to the eaves. To that, we attached tubing that fit snugly over the funnel’s bottom hole and ran it to the top of our 140-gallon rainwater tank. On our side yard, we installed a small section of gutter below a valley with heavy runoff, including a section of downspout. We “glued” end cap pieces on each open end of the short 3-foot section of gutter with waterproof silicone. That way, all the water caught in the gutter is directed down the spout to our two 530-gallon rain tanks nearby.

RAINWATER QUALITY & CONTAMINATION CONCERNS

Risk of Bacteria Contamination in a Rainwater Harvesting System

Rain. It seems so clean and refreshing, right? Rainwater that falls directly from the sky is generally quite clean. Although, it does have the potential to pick up local airborne particulate matter or pollutants as it falls. Furthermore, rainwater will only stay as clean as the container it is stored in. Rainwater collected from roof runoff can easily be contaminated in a number of ways. Dirt and debris on the roof can introduce bacteria. Better yet, wild animals who walk or poop on the roof can introduce nastier bacteria, viruses, or parasites such as E.Coli or Giardia.

Because of this, you do need to be cautious about how you use your rainwater. Don’t be too alarmed though! It’s not as scary as it sounds. See the “Using Captured Rainwater” section to follow.

Rainwater Tank Material and BPA Contamination

Aside from bacteria growing in your tank, another common concern is chemicals leaching from the tank itself. As water sits in a tank in contact with plastic, there is a chance for some migration of chemicals from the plastic to the water. This is especially true when the plastic is exposed to heat, such as in direct hot sun, or when the water is stored for a prolonged period of time. However, does that contamination make it into the plants you water?

There have been fairly limited studies on plants abilities to uptake BPA, and most are done using unrealistically high concentrations of BPA. However, this study was performed with lower, more realistic concentrations of BPA (and other endocrine-disrupting compounds) found in waste water. The study found that lettuce and collard greens did uptake a significant quantity of BPA into their roots, but only a tiny bit into the above-ground stem and leaf tissues. Therefore, I would be particularly cautious using rainwater from a non BPA-free tank on root crops such as carrots, radishes, potatoes, beets, or turnips.

When we were shopping for rainwater collection tanks, I found that most small rainwater barrels were not listed as BPA-free. As you move into larger tanks, it is easier to find BPA-free plastic options since many are also designed for drinking water use. We were eventually able to find BPA-free options, though at a slightly higher cost. The classic blue barrels designed for emergency drinking-water storage are BPA-free, though they don’t usually come ready for rainwater collection with spigots, inlets, filters, and so on.

Do Asphalt Roof Shingles Contaminate Rainwater?

Our roof is made of asphalt shingles, and I will say this much: I don’t let that stop us from collecting rainwater! There is some risk for the less-than-ideal substances found in asphalt shingles to get into your rainwater. However, “what” and “how much” depends on the age and condition of the roof. Very old roofs (pre 1980-ish) may contain asbestos, which was later banned. Brand new roofs give off a higher concentration of dissolved organic carbon (DOC), yet that is only hazardous if it is combined with chlorine and creates dioxin. Other common shingle roof contaminants include zinc and iron. In some wet locations, asphalt shingles may be pre-treated with moss killer. 

If your intention is to irrigate plants with the rainwater you collect, I wouldn’t worry too much about this. We’ll talk about what amazing natural toxin-buffers soil, worms, and compost can be in a moment. Yet if you hope to consume your rainwater, advanced treatment would be recommended. 

How Do I Prevent Mosquitoes from Breeding in My Rainwater Tank?

You know those debris screens we talked about? That’s how. As you likely know, mosquitoes breed in standing water – and open rainwater tanks are a mosquito magnet!

In order to prevent mosquitoes from breeding in your rain tank, you must prevent them from accessing the inside of the tank altogether. Ensure that every opening on your tank is equipped with a tight-fitting, completely sealed, fine-mesh insect screens. This includes the inlet area, any overflow outlets, or vents. 

USING COLLECTED RAINWATER IN THE GARDEN & BEYOND

Hand Watering versus Pumps

Most basic rainwater collection systems require the user to manually gather and distribute the rainwater to target plants, such as by filling watering cans or buckets directly from a spigot or valve near the bottom of the tank. This is how we utilize our rainwater at the moment. If the tank design creates enough head pressure (see gravity section above) then it may be possible to attach a hose and water nearby plants with it. Large elevated or uphill tanks could potentially have gravity-fed drip irrigation systems connected to them. 

As an alternative to hand-watering, you could choose to outfit your rainwater collection system with a booster pump. Small pumps are used to create pressure to deliver the rainwater through larger irrigation distribution systems. We have our eye on this little affordable 1 HP pump that gets great reviews, and may invest in one soon!

The use of a booster pump is most advantageous if you have a large rainwater collection system (e.g. 500 stored gallons or more) or have frequent rainfall to refill smaller tanks. A pump and extensive watering will quickly empty a small rainwater tank. 

Using Rainwater to Water the Garden (or Other Plants)

Rainwater can be used to water anything that needs it! If you have a petite garden, a decent rainwater collection system, and frequent enough rain to keep it full most of the time, it may be possible to water your garden primarily with collected rainwater. On the other hand, our garden is far too extensive (and our rainwater supply too modest) for us to water the vast majority of our plants with it. Furthermore, it would be too time consuming – since we water by hand with rainwater! Therefore, our garden beds, fruit trees, and perennials receive most of their water from an automated drip irrigation, soaker hoses, and city water. Check out this article for more garden irrigation solutions and ideas.

Rainwater is pretty dang precious, and plants LOVE it! Due to our limited supply, we use rainwater on our most spoiled and chlorine-sensitive plants. For example, to water our cannabis plants, seedlings in the greenhouse, air plants, and house plants. We also use rainwater to make actively aerated compost tea, for big batches of fresh aloe vera water as a soil drench for newly transplanted trees, and other special projects. In a pinch, another way to provide chlorine-free water is to filter your tap water with carbon hose filter. (Click on any of the links in this paragraph to learn more about each of those subjects)

Is Rainwater Too Acidic for My Plants?

With an average pH of 5.0 to 5.6, rainwater is mildly acidic. It just so happens that the vast majority of plants prefer slightly acidic soil (6.0 to 6.5) over neutral or alkaline soil. Rainforests sure seem happy! Healthy soil and compost acts as a buffer to stabilize pH. However, soil exposed to frequent heavy acidic rain may become overly-acidified. If this is a concern, test the pH of your soil with a simple pH meter. Use limestone to naturally raise the pH of soil as needed. (Though we have never had this issue) 

Will Rainwater Contaminate My Edible Crops?

Because of the potential for bacterial contamination, it is best to avoid direct contact between untreated collected rainwater and the edible portion of your crops. Especially leafy greens, or something you are not going to cook before consuming. However, it is safe to use rainwater to irrigate the soil that food crops are growing in! Soil, compost, and worms are excellent at buffering and purifying bacteria and even toxins. 

Vegetable crops become tainted with bacteria when contaminated water is applied in heavy concentrations and bacteria adheres to the plant surface – not by bacteria being drawn up from the soil and into the plant tissue. Simply water close to the soil line around the perimeter of the plant, and avoid splashing and spraying it about.

Don’t let this freak you out! Watering soil with rainwater creates less potential risk than the damn birds, rodents and opossums running around your garden beds do! If you are extra nervous, use it to water trees, house plants, ornamentals, and or other non-edibles.

Can I Drink Collected Rainwater?

The answer to this question is: it depends! The safety of rainwater consumption varies wildly depending on how it was collected, stored, or treated. Rainwater that falls directly from the sky and hasn’t been in contact with a roof or other surfaces is relatively safe to drink as-is, untreated. That is, unless it is rain falling in a nuclear hot-spot like Chernobyl. 

We’ve already discussed the various risks and sources of contamination that may impact the quality of rainwater collected from roof runoff: bacteria, algae/mold, viruses, parasites, or chemicals. That is to say, is not safe to consume roof-collected rainwater unless it is properly treated first.

Ways to Treat Rainwater

• Vigorously boil the rainwater for several minutes. This kills most pathogens. Pair this with a charcoal filter to remove impurities.
• Running the rainwater through a high-end filtration system like a Berkey filter or Life Straw may make it safe to drink. Both are rated to remove bacteria, parasites, viruses, and most chemical contaminants.
• Add non-scented NSF-approved household bleach (5.25% chlorine) in the tank. Mix 1 gallon of bleach for every 1,000 gallons of water, or 1 quart for every 250 gallons of water. You could pair this with a charcoal filter or reverse osmosis system to further purify and remove chlorine byproducts.
• All of these options will most likely prevent you from getting sick. Yet the low pH makes it less-than-ideal for long term consumption, unless the pH is adjusted.

Personally, drinking captured rainwater wouldn’t be my first choice. We simply don’t have the capacity or need to. In the case of a major local emergency, we are prepared to drink our rainwater if needed by boiling it and using a Life Straw. However, some places in the world rely on rainwater as their primary drinking water supply, including rural parts of Australia. Evaluate your situation, do further research, and make an informed personal decision.

RAINWATER COLLECTION SYSTEM MAINTENANCE

Routine Maintenance

Alright guys, I am starting to feel like a broken record here… so we’ll wrap it up with this section! The recommendations for maintenance and cleaning of your rainwater collection system will vary depending on your unique set up, how grimy it gets, what you’re using it for, and so on. At minimum, routinely clean out the gutters and screens to clear debris. We do this once per year (because 80% of the year it isn’t raining at all), along with flushing the tanks.

To flush our rainwater tanks, we completely empty them every fall right before the rainy season starts. By then, we’ve likely used almost all the water inside. If there is a small amount left, we make an effort to use it up in the garden over a few week period instead of city water. Finally, we store any leftover bit of water in 5-gallon buckets or trash cans. Next, we open the bottom valves to set free any final standing water – effectively flushing it. 

Rainwater Tank Disinfection

The final step in our annual routine is to spray down the inner walls with a very dilute bleach water solution to disinfect the tanks. We add just a couple tablespoons of household bleach to a 2-gallon pump sprayer of water. I spray down the inner walls and allow it to sit for a minute or two. Finally, I use a hose to wash that away with water.

It may not be necessary to disinfect your rainwater tanks. During your routine flush, take a peek inside (if you can). How does it look? The first year we had our tanks, they stayed fairly clean. By the second year of use, some grime and slight algae built up on the inner walls. Keep in mind you can’t see bacteria or parasites though! 

Undiluted vinegar could potentially be used to wash down the inside of a rainwater tank, though it doesn’t have nearly the same disinfection strength as chlorine and also requires a much longer contact time (10 minutes). Remember, never mix vinegar and bleach! Another option is to use undiluted household-strength hydrogen peroxide. Peroxide also requires a constant contact time of around 10 minutes to be effective.  

Preparing Your Rainwater Collection System for Winter

If you live in a location with freezing temperatures in the wintertime, be sure to completely empty your tanks of water before freezing weather sets in. Also, drain any system pipelines of water. Switch your gutter downspout to no longer feed into the collection tank. Protect any pumps by draining them of standing water, disconnecting, and consider wrapping them insulation. For year-round use, the addition of an aerator or heat pump can be implemented to prevent the water from freezing.

And that concludes your rainwater harvesting 101 crash course.

Just for fun, here is an old video of our rainwater collection systems during a light rain, before we had two of the slimline tanks.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Deanna ~ Homestead and Chill © (@deannacat3) on Mar 10, 2018 at 3:39pm PST

I hope you found this article to be informative and helpful. Please feel free to ask questions or share this article! Good luck setting up your own rainwater harvesting system, and thanks for tuning in. Also check out 17 Ways to Save Water in the Garden, or How to Install Easy Drip Irrigation in Raised Beds.

The post Rainwater Collection Systems 101 & FAQs appeared first on Homestead and Chill.

“How do you water your garden?” This is a very common question that we receive, so I will try my best to answer! It won’t be an extremely straightforward, one-method-suits-all type of thing though! Each climate, garden space, and even plant type may have different irrigation needs. And for the record, I am not a professional landscape irrigation specialist. Yet we have experimented with a variety of garden irrigation solutions here on this homestead! I will share some information on what has worked well for us, and for our plants. Hopefully you can take away some helpful tips to try at home too!

This article will discuss various garden irrigation methods, including: soaker hoses, drip irrigation, ways to convert traditional sprinklers to drip, clay ollas, hand-watering, and rainwater capture.

We will explore the least toxic, DIY-friendly, and efficient methods for watering, including benefits and drawbacks of each option. I’ll show you the garden irrigation methods we are using in our garden with the aid of a video at the end of this post!

Upgrading Our Garden Irrigation

Over the past several years, there has always been other projects demanding our time, attention, and resources. Upgrading our garden irrigation system has been on the back burner. Until this point we have sort of limped along, mostly hand-watering, creating semi-automated DIY drip systems, and experimenting with various soaker hoses. We’ve worked our way through many, many watering cans and wands!

However, this year we made it our mission to improve our garden irrigation methods! Our goal is to be more time-and-water-efficient, easy, and most importantly, effective. With the blog and other commitments pulling us away from the garden more than ever, we want to spend our time in the garden tending to it, and playing in it, not spending hours and hours watering.

Some people love watering by hand! I do find it therapeutic and enjoyable, when I have the time to enjoy it! But that is rare these days. Plus, our garden space has more than tripled in size over the past few years!
In all, our old methods just weren’t cutting it. But we have found some great solutions I’m excited to share with you today!

Here is a quick summary of how our garden is currently watered:

• The majority of our raised garden beds have soaker hoses or DIY drip systems, which the main garden hose attaches to. Combine with a timer for added convenience!
• Several of our raised beds are outfitted with olla pots, which help reduce other water needs in terms of frequency and amount.
• Some smaller raised beds, containers (pots, wine barrels, and grow bags), and the greenhouse are watered by hand.
• Much of our hand watering is done using reclaimed rainwater.
• The remainder (and vast majority) of the yard, including the pollinator zones, fruit trees, and shrubs around the perimeters are on automatic drip. One system was in place when we moved in, and another we created by converting traditional sprinkler heads to drip manifolds.
• UPDATE: Since moving to our new homestead, we have installed drip tape irrigation to all of our raised garden beds. Please see this post and video tutorial for more info.

Fun Tidbit: People often see our garden and say or think: “Oh, that must take a ton of water!” Sure, maybe it isn’t as water-wise as a xeriscaped yard, but guess what? According to historical use on our water bills, we use just about the same amount of water now as the family of four who lived here before we did! They maintained a green lawn in both the front and back yard.

By removing all of the lawn and the majority of the traditional sprinklers, our current garden irrigation methods are efficient enough to grow exponentially more plants (and exponentially more useful plants!) than the previous owners did – without increasing our consumption.

We’ll discuss each of these types of garden irrigation systems, but before we dive into the details, let’s lay some groundwork. How much water do plants like? How often should I water? What type of watering is best?

WATERING NEEDS

Consider the Plant

Water requirements will vary from plant to plant, so read up on what it is you’re growing and what they prefer. Generally speaking, most plants like moist soil, but not soggy, flooded, or in standing water. Plants breathe through all of their tissues, including their roots. If the roots are overly wet for an extended period of time, it essentially suffocates them. It also increases their chance of rotting, or developing disease. Certain plants – like succulents, cacti, or even chili peppers – prefer to be more on the dry side of things. Every pot, bed, or container needs adequate drainage!

The average plant is most happy when it gets a nice deep drink, but can then have the chance to slightly dry out before the next watering. I don’t mean completely dry out though! It’s all about balance. It is also usually best to provide a deep watering less often (e.g. once or twice per week, depending on the climate) over a light, shallow watering every single day – unless you’re dealing with very hot and dry summers.

Consider the season and weather

Before you start to water, poke around under the soil surface a little bit. Is it still quite wet down there? Or super dry, even several inches deep? Then think about how much you last watered, when, and what the weather has been like. Adjust as needed.

Our watering needs here, with our temperate winters and cooler foggy summers, will be markedly different than those who live somewhere hot and arid like Arizona. The schedule will also vary from week to week, with natural swings in weather. Even in our hottest times of year (in the 80’s) we don’t find the need to water more than twice per week. If it has been overcast and cooler, one deep water per week may do just fine. If we’re having a rainy winter, we are able to shut down all of our garden irrigation for a few months.

You’ll start to notice a pattern and get your own schedule down, suited for your climate, season, sun exposure, mulching practices, and type of garden you have.

Consider your garden style

In-ground gardens and deep raised beds like ours (18-24 inches deep) will stay moist longer than shallower raised beds, or most containers. Every type of container varies as well. Solid pots and clay pots usually stay more wet than something like fabric grow bags. We love using fabric grow bags for many reasons, including improved drainage and their ability to air-prune roots. Yet they usually require more frequent water than other types of containers.

In raised beds, our personal preference is to keep the whole bed evenly moist. The alternative would be using drip just along the base of the plants. By watering between plants too, it encourages the roots to spread out further. It also keeps all of the soil and its inhabitants alive and happy, including beneficial microbes, fungi, and worms.

Improving moisture retention: Mulch!

An important concept when it comes to gardening and irrigation is mulch! Mulch is a layer of material added on top of the soils surface, increasing its ability to retain moisture and reduce evaporation. As a best practice, try to use mulch in your garden as much as possible! A variety of organic materials can be used as mulch. Some examples include compost, straw, hay, pine needles, leaf litter, wood chips, grain hulls, grass clippings, or even newspaper. Read more about the pros and cons of various mulch materials in this article, and mulch 101 best practices here!

In our raised garden beds, we use compost as mulch. We mix some homemade compost with a semi-woody soil conditioner product, topping the beds off with this a few times per year, to about 1-2 inches deep. Around the perimeter of the yard, such as around our fruit trees and other shrubs, we use a redwood bark (in the front yard). In the backyard where the chickens free-range, we use a softer shredded redwood bark known as “gorilla hair”. The spaces between our raised beds are mulched with green rock gravel.

Now that we’ve gotten those concepts out of the way, let’s dive into the various options to consider for watering your garden.

HAND-WATERING

While this method of garden irrigation can be the most time-consuming and labor intensive, manual hand watering does have its benefits! Hand watering gives you the ultimate control over the amount of water, and timing. It also makes it easy to distribute water evenly over the surface area.

Though we are trying to get more and more automated in our garden irrigation systems, we do still use hand watering for many situations! For example, watering a tree that is off in a corner by itself without any permanent irrigation lines nearby. In this instance, we just drag a hose out once in a while (weekly for young trees, monthly for established trees) and set it on there for a good drink. We also hand water our smaller raised beds, the greenhouse, and plants in containers that aren’t near a drip line.

For folks with just one or two raised beds, or a handful of potted plants, hand-watering is often times still a very manageable and the most affordable option! I do suggest investing in a good adjustable, multi-function watering wand for ease and comfort, as well as more controlled watering – easily avoiding wetting foliage. Also, a quality hose reel cart makes a world of difference!

SOAKER HOSES

Common Soaker Hoses

I’ll admit, I poo-pooed soaker hoses in the past. The types we have previously tried for our raised beds were not my favorite, and not something I would recommend. I don’t remember the brand, but they were just the typical black rubbery ones you can pick up at your local garden center or hardware store. First of all, the water pressure and output was not evenly distributed throughout the hose. It would readily seep out water near the start, but by the end of a long hose with many turns throughout the bed, it was hardly seeping at all.

Additionally, I wasn’t a fan of the material. Most standard soaker hoses are made from recycled tire rubber. They’re full of heavy metals, carcinogens and other toxins that can leach through the hose and into your soil. Furthermore, a lot of crops are excellent at taking up toxins from soil. For example, kale can bio-remediate heavy metals from soil! This all increases as they bake in the hot sun. The sun also degrades the rubber and can make it brittle. This often leads to cracking and leaking after a couple years of use. They’re also usually not certified lead-free.

If you have soaker hoses like this already, I don’t want you to freak out. I apologize for being such a Debbie Downer here! They’ll probably only last a couple years anyways, so when they’ve reached the end of their life, you can consider what you want to replace them with…

Solution: Safe soaker hoses!

I cannot adequately express my joy in recently finding these premium soaker hoses from Gardener’s Supply Company. Seriously. They’re NSF-certified, drinking-water grade, non-leaching, and free of toxins including BPA, phthalates, and lead. They’re even made in the USA! We added them to four of our front yard raised beds this year. The safety and quality of these things is unparalleled. (Edit/update: We’ve been using the hoses over a year now and added them to nearly every raised bed in both the front and back yard garden. Still love ’em.)

I was skeptical at first, and didn’t want to share about them here or on Instagram until we tested them for a while. I have to say, we are extremely impressed with the even and deep distribution of water released throughout the whole hose! Additionally, the type of polyurethane that they’re made of will not degrade and get brittle in the sun. These soaker hoses have very durable connection ends, and are pretty sexy looking to boot. I love the brown color. In my humble opinion, all these attributes make them very worthy of the upfront cost!

Potential drawbacks

Something to note about these hoses: if you crank your water up really high, they can send off little errant sprays here and there. To solve that, we covered them with a light layer of compost mulch. Now we don’t even have to look at them, and the mulch gets nice and saturated around them too! This blocks the little sprays and keeps our plant’s foliage 100% dry, which is important in preventing fungal disease like powdery mildew.

One last thing to mention about soaker hoses is hard water. If your water is really “hard”, meaning it contains a lot of minerals and is prone to causing build-up, it could eventually lead to build-up in your soaker hoses too. Our water is pretty hard here. Therefore, we add a simple hose carbon filter that will remove minerals at the start of the system, attached to the hose bib. Keep in mind that hard water can cause clogging issues with any drip irrigation system. We also use this filter when filling our fountain, to avoid staining and clogging of the pump.

Using soaker hoses in garden beds

Soaker hoses are probably one of the most water-efficient ways to irrigate a bed. They are also very flexible, allowing you to water as little or as much surface area as you desire. You can see in the photos how we evenly weaved them around the beds and plants, to cover as much surface area as possible. Our soaker hoses are run close to plants to ensure their immediate root zone gets watered, and also between the plants – to keep the rest of the soil happy and encourage their roots to spread. Rust-proof 6” long contractor landscape staples were used to pin the hose into place as needed.

To use the soaker hoses, Aaron used to bring out our garden hose and connect it to one raised bed at a time. Then, we recently got this hose splitter along with two short BPA-free connector hoses so that he can water two beds at one time. See the photo below. He turns it on, sets an alarm, walks away, then comes back to switch the hose to the next two raised beds. We leave the main feeder hose out and connected during the week, and reel it in with the aid of our favorite hose reel cart on the weekends – so it is out of the way when we are outside most.

Watering time will vary depending on the season, maturity and type of plants, and so on. Lately we have been running them for a little over a half an hour each. To make this task even quicker and easier, we just implemented an additional time-saver: a hose timer!

GARDEN HOSE TIMERS

We finally got a garden hose timer for both the front and back yard! The main garden hose attaches to it, which in turn runs to a soaker hose. Water comes on at the time and duration we set the timer for. Aaron does still have to switch the hose between the soaker hoses. However, the timers are set so that at least one larger bed in the front and back yard are finished being watered before he even gets home from work!

The popular timer we received from Gardener’s Supply can be found here. There are many hose timer options out there, like this highly-rated timer by Orbit – at half the price! Additionally, we are planning to get a hose splitter soon. With that, the main garden hose can feed two of the raised bed soaker hoses at a time. That will cut the effort and time in half!

A garden hose timer can be used for a variety of garden irrigation applications, be it soaker hoses or other DIY drip systems.

DIY DRIP SYSTEMS

Frustrated with the use of crummy soaker hoses in the past, we created our own drip systems! Typical drip irrigation line is half-inch black tubing. You can purchase drip line that comes with pre-installed emitters at designated intervals, which is best for evenly spaced crops such as those grown in rows. Alternately, you can customize your own drip line by attaching emitters where you want them. This is what we did.

To construct a DIY drip system, we did the following:

• Obtain a roll of 1/2 inch irrigation tubing
• Attach a pressure-reducer and threaded hose adapter to one end. This allows you to plug your garden hose into it. The pressure reducer is helpful because then no matter how hard you turn your hose up, the pressure in your system will remain constant and even from watering session to watering session. This also prevents “blow-outs” – when you accidentally send one of your emitter attachments flying.
• Decide on the configuration you want your tubing to run. For example, do you want one straight line running up the middle of a bed, with various emitters attached to it? Weaving through an in-ground flower bed? Or, running along the perimeter of a raised bed? There are various attachments such as 90-degree angle pieces to allow you to customize the shape.
• At the opposite end that the hose attaches to, either fold over and tightly zip tie the end shut, or attach a dead-end cap piece.
• Next, add emitters along the main drip line, with the assistance of micro-tubing as needed for your desired configuration.
• The ones we make typically lay inside a garden bed. We drag a hose over and connect it – similar to how a soaker hose would be used.

Drip system emitter options:

When it comes to building your own drip system, there are dozen of emitter options out there! Each of them will come with a rating for how many gallons per hour (gph) it will emit. This could range from as little as .5 gph up to 30 gph on some of the sprinkler-type emitter attachments. The great thing is, you can mix and match emitters with various flow rates on the same drip system. This enables you to provide customized water amounts to plants that want more or less water.

Some drip irrigation emitters are simply little plugs that you can insert directly into the main black tubing. Those will emit a single drip right there along the main tube. Or, you can attach smaller pieces of ¼” irrigation micro-tubing to each emitter to enable the water to drip at a location further away. Similarly, that smaller tubing can be attached to the main garden irrigation line with an adapter piece, and then a sprinkler or bubbler type emitter at the other end of it. Those sprinkler styles can be further narrowed down by their spray pattern, such as a fan, 180”, 360”, and so on. These are what we use for our fruit trees.

Our DIY drip experience

We have created a few of these DIY systems for our largest raised beds. They are configured with half-inch black irrigation tubing running along the inner perimeter of the bed, with pieces of micro-tubing attached to little sprinklers and bubblers around the plants within the bed. See the photos above. We do not use the single-drip emitters in the raised bed, because again, we prefer to keep all of the soil moist – not just one spot here and there.

We still use one of these setups in our backyard raised beds. They do work quite well! However, I find this style preferable in a raised bed that has fewer and larger plants (e.g tomatoes). Meaning, you need fewer emitters to keep them watered. We found them less ideal for maintaining an entire bed evenly moist, or for more tightly spaced crops like carrots or rows of greens. In that scenario, we would have needed to add more and more emitters, or a lot more drip tubing – which isn’t very flexible to weave around. Things were getting a little messy, jumbled, and I believe less water-efficient as it was.

Because we used the sprinkle and bubbler type emitter attachments to water a larger area, they also sometimes sprayed the leaves of our plants. With powdery mildew rampant here, this wasn’t ideal for us. It wouldn’t have been an issue if we used single-drip emitters instead.

Considering these pros and cons, we have decided that soaker hoses better suit our needs for raised garden beds. Especially because standard drip systems are more difficult to make drinking-water grade. On the other hand, classic drip emitters (both single-drip and/or the sprinkler type) are perfect for other spaces in our yard! We rely on them for nearly everything outside of the raised beds – like for trees and perennials.

Convert Sprinkler Heads to Drip

When we took out the remainder of our front lawn and replaced it with gravel pathways and “pollinator islands”, we were faced with the question: how do we still utilize the existing irrigation lines for a different and better use? There were about 7 traditional pop-up sprinkler heads throughout the space, attached to standard ½-inch PVC running underground. It was all set up by the previous owner, including a fully automated timer system.  

Short of hiring a professional, the simplest option we discovered to convert traditional sprinkler heads to drip was using all-in-one drip manifolds. See the image below. All you do is replace the pop-up sprinkler head with a riser and a drip manifold instead. The manifolds we have contain a pressure reducer and filter system inside, to adequately transform a high-pressure irrigation system to drip! Screw them in, attach micro-tubing to each spur, and then run your micro-tubing to the desired location. At the end, attach either a single-drip emitter or mini sprinkler/bubbler as discussed above.

Manifolds come in a variety of options, with as few as 2 spurs and up to 9, the option we chose. Ensure whatever manifold you buy is capable of reducing high pressures on its own. Otherwise, prepare to add an upstream pressure regulator to your system.

NOTE: You MUST replace every sprinkler head in that same “zone” with these.

Meaning, you cannot leave behind one regular sprinkler and use a couple of these elsewhere in the same piping/pressure zone. The pressure differential between the two units will cause issues.  

Our existing sprinkler heads were around the perimeter of the old lawn area. However, we wanted these new drip manifolds to be in more centralized locations – one or two in each of our new stone-lined “pollinator zones” as previously shown on the front yard overview photo. Therefore, we did have to attach new piping underground to move each sprinkler riser over a few feet. This can be accomplishing using standard PVC, or a flexible screw-in irrigation tubing that is compatible with PVC and high pressure.

OTHER AUTOMATED DRIP SYSTEMS

I have found that most homes have some sort of automatic sprinkler system as shown below. A backflow preventer, pressure regulator, timer system, and/or filter are added, teeing off the house water main and then run out to the lawn or yard space. The previous homeowner here worked with a professional to set these up in both our front and back yard, though I know many handy homeowners that easily install these systems themselves! Since we haven’t done so, I am not going to attempt to give instructions on that.

On our property, most of the existing garden irrigation “zones” were traditional sprinkler systems. We still use them in the backyard for the fruit trees and pollinator island. Otherwise, we converted most of them to drip by replacing the sprinkler heads themselves, as discussed above. We got lucky – one zone in the front yard was already set up with drip irrigation tubing. It runs along the entire outer perimeter of the front yard. We have customized it over time, adding or moving various emitters, but the core system was in place.

Not comfortable with plumbing, and no budget to hire a professional?

If you aren’t comfortable or want to avoid tapping into your main water lines, you can also run drip irrigation right from a faucet. See the video below. Use an easy all-in-one adapter system that allows you to connect black drip irrigation directly to a standard hose bib. If you’d like, add a timer too. Next, simply run the irrigation line where you need it.

Voila! This would essentially create the same type of automated system we have connected to our water main, but with no plumbing skills necessary! Note that it does occupy that hose bib from other use, unless you add a splitter or timer that has two outlets.

GARDEN HOSE OPTIONS

Whether it is for hand-watering, or for hooking up to a soaker hose or other drip lines to, we have been slowly replacing all of our old garden hoses with BPA-free, drinking water quality hoses. Traditional garden hoses contain icky chemicals that can leach out into the water, particularly when exposed to heat or sun. Often times, they’re not certified as lead-free.

If you can’t afford to upgrade your hoses just yet, I have one safety tip for you: When you first turn on your hose, allow it to run for a moment somewhere else than into your garden beds or fruit trees. This will flush out the stagnant water inside the hose since you last used it, which will most certainly have icky hose junk in it. I hate to waste water, so direct it onto a non-edible plant if possible.

OLLAS

Have you guys heard of ollas yet? They’re awesome! We have several in our raised beds. Essentially, they are porous but sealed clay vessels or pots that are buried beneath the soil line, and then filled with water. Through the process of osmosis, if the surrounding soil is dry and needs water, it will seep from the olla to provide it. Ollas have been used in irrigation for centuries, dating back to 4000 years ago in both Africa and China!

Ollas aren’t necessarily intended to be the only source of water. This is particularly true if plants are young and don’t have far-reaching roots yet, or if you only have one or two ollas in your large raised bed. However, they are a wonderful supplement and greatly reduce the need for other garden irrigation!

Ollas provide deep water, helping soil stay saturated and moist below. Moist soil more readily accepts and evenly distributes new water when added. They also serve as an indicator for how wet your soil is – or, how we’ll you’re watering… If they empty rapidly after filling, your soil must be pretty dry. In contrast, if they stay full for a few days, your soil is nice and moist!

Depending on the size of olla used, the area they can water varies from a couple feet to several feet in all directions. We love and use the GrowOya brand ollas. The small ones are best for containers, like in a wine barrel or grow bag. We have medium GrowOyas in our smaller raised beds, and the large ones in our biggest raised beds, particularly around deep rooting plants like tomatoes. Check out GrowOya here, and save 5% on your order by using the discount code “deannacat”!

Make your own olla?

Some thrifty gardeners get creative and make their own ollas! I have seen folks gluing two pots together, then sealing the bottom hole somehow. However, they used kind of gnarly glue adhesive. Personally, I wouldn’t feel comfortable burying and saturating something potentially toxic like that in my garden soil. If you have made your own ollas and found a durable, effective, non-toxic way to seal them together, please let me know!

RAIN TANKS

The last garden irrigation solution that I want to talk about is rainwater capture! This is a fairly hefty topic on it’s own, so please see this article for more details on how to set up, use, and maintain a rainwater collection system. Here, I will provide just a brief run-down of how we use rainwater along, with some best practices.

As crazy as it sounds, capturing rainwater is illegal in some places! I suggest checking with your local and state laws before investing in tanks. You also need to consider your climate before choosing tanks. If you get frequent rain throughout the year, you can get by with fewer and smaller tanks. They’ll refill more often! In contrast, we need enough capacity to catch as much as possible in the short 3 months it rains over the winter – to last until next winter. Also note that rain tanks (when connected to a roof gutter downspout) fill up WAY quicker than you’d expect them too!

Consider this example scenario:

• Say you have a 2,000 square foot house.
• The roof has a peak in the middle. If you hook up a rain barrel to a gutter downspout on one side of the house, you are capturing the rain that falls on that one half of the roof – maybe 1000 square feet. Let’s say the approximate size of the roof is 50’ x 20’.
• A nice little storm comes through with 1 inch of rainfall. That does NOT equate to one inch in your barrel!
• If you convert your 50’ x 20’ roof area to inches, it is 600” x 240”. Multiply that by the 1” of rain to get the volume of rainwater in cubic inches. 600” x 240” x 1” = 144,000 cubic inches of rain.
• The standard conversion for water is 1 gallon = 231 cubic inches. Thus, if we divide 144,000 by 231, that means you could capture 623 gallons of water in just one 1-inch rainstorm!
• As you can see, one little 50-gallon rain barrel isn’t going to get you very far. Plus, right after a storm, you don’t need to water! So the barrel will sit full, and overflow with every subsequent storm. Many folks either daisy-chain multiple smaller tanks together, have other “reserve” containers they can empty their barrel into to make more space, or simply use larger tanks.

Our Rain Tanks

We have three rainwater tanks. Two of which are these 530-gallon slimline tanks by Bushman, and one smaller 140-gallon capacity tank by Polymart. Note that our smaller one is technically a “125-gallon” but holds 140 gallons when completely full.

That means we have 1300 gallons of rainwater storage capacity on this little homestead! I suggest looking at your local farm supply or water tank supply stores. Such as those that sell tanks for rural residential or agriculture water tanks. They might sell rain tanks too, or other tanks that can easily be converted to catch rainwater. Shipping big tanks makes up the majority of the cost, so going local will save you! Even though we do not drink rainwater, it was important to us to choose tanks that were BPA-free.

Keep Your Rain Tanks Clean!

It is not safe to consume rainwater unless it is properly filtered and rapidly boiled. Even then it can be a little sketchy. There is potential bacteria from the roof runoff, such as animal droppings. Avoid semi-transparent or white tanks. The light penetration allows algae to develop inside. Ours get a tad scuzzy still, but nothing a good annual flush, disinfection, and rinse can’t solve.

To prevent junk from entering your rain tanks, it is important they have fine-mesh screens at the inlet. Furthermore, all opening should have screens to prevent mosquito breeding. Our “gutters” have an initial larger screen to catch leaves, with an additional finer screen right as the water enters the tank – sealing the tank itself.

I put gutters in quotations because our house doesn’t actually have any gutters! Instead, we installed a little section at a roof “valley” that had heavy runoff to divert into our largest tanks behind the chicken run. In the front of the house, we hooked up a large vintage copper funnel and tubing at another valley to catch runoff there. When our tanks are full and more rain is in the forecast, we pull off as much rainwater as possible to make more space, storing it in 5-gallon buckets or even in trash cans.

Using rainwater for garden irrigation

At this point in time, we do not have a pump system set up for our tanks. The height of the tanks gives us decent enough head pressure to connect and use a hose close by, especially when the tanks are full. On the other hand, there is definitely not enough pressure to full-on water the garden with. Each tank has a hose bib near the bottom to connect a hose to, or fill a watering can with.

We may get a pump one day, but for now we mostly use the rainwater for our hand-watering needs. For example, to water the cannabis plants, greenhouse seedlings, air plants, house plants, making compost tea, making big batches of fresh aloe water for transplanted trees, and other chlorine-sensitive uses. Plants LOVE rainwater, so we save it for the spoiled ones. Another way to provide chlorine-free water is to filter your tap water with carbon hose filter.

Because of the potential for bacteria, try to avoid direct contact between rain water and your edible crops. Especially leafy greens. But it is okay to water food with rainwater! Soil and compost are excellent at buffering and purifying bacteria and even toxins. Just avoid splashing and spraying it about.

Update: I’ve since written a more detailed article all about rainwater collection systems, which you can find here.

In summary…

…we do a little bit of everything here! One size doesn’t always fit all. Maybe some of these garden irrigation solutions won’t work for you – but I hope many of them do!

To make it super easy to find most of the items mentioned in this post, I put them all together in one place for you. You’ll also see we have lists made for gardening supplies, seed starting, kombucha, sourdough, books, and more!

Check out this video that shows all of the garden irrigation methods we described today, as utilized here on this homestead. Thanks for tuning in!

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