Specialty Gardening: IRRIGATING Containers and container gardens?, 1 by critterologist

critterologist wrote:
I've also used mrdrip.com, and if you call them Darryl will give you some good advice about setting up a system. I've been thinking about setting up a system for all the containers out on my deck, and I don't think it'll be that complicated... I'm planning to run half inch tubing, probably just under the railing on the outside to "hide" it, and then run skinny quarter inch tubing from there to each container. Drippers will be good for some containers, and quarter inch soaker tubing might be better for others. There are barbed fittings for connecting the skinny tubes to the supply line, so all you have to do is punch a hole (there's a tool to make this easy) and push in a fitting (it's a little easier to connect the quarter inch tubing first, then push the fitting into the hole). It does take some hand strength, so I generally recruit DH's help with assembly, but it goes together quickly enough.

If you're running pipes or burying hose lines, then putting in irrigation is more time consuming...

Oh, and getting a hose end timer is totally worthwhile! We've got a digital controller and half a dozen electronic valves that are in charge of watering a lot of our garden beds, but they also make simpler timers that you just put in place between the hose bib and the supply line. With any of these systems, it's a good idea to put in a pressure reducer and a filter.

You might also be able to put together a system locally... Home Depot, Lowe's, and WalMart have started carrying more irrigation stuff.

We just put a system in for DH's folks (soaker hoses for some bed areas and drippers for new trees), and it all hooked up together with a very simple timer. You just turn the dial to set how long you want the water to run, and it will repeat that program every day, every other day, or every third day. We put a Y-splitter on the hose bib so that both the irrigation system and the regular garden hose can be attached (we've got a 4-way one on the hose bib on our deck).

Here's a description of the timer, http://www.mrdrip.com/timer62024.htm
and here's a photo of how it looks with the filter, etc.