My new drip system

Well, it's not entirely finished yet, but I have made progress. We were having a discussion in another thread about soaker hoses and I said I would share some pictures and stuff once I made a little progress. So here it is! Oh, here is a link to that other discussion if you want to read that- lots of good info! http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/502693/

I want to show some overviews too so you get the big picture. Because I don't have a wide angle on this camera, I have had to take more than one shot. Please notice that I have left a bit of one area in each succesive picture so you can see where everything is in relation to each other. And this is obviously NOT a thread about plant photos so please forgive my lack of Better Homes and Gardens shots! :)

I went across the street and took a couple of shots of my backyard from that side- there are two pictures since the yard is too long to fit in one. This first one is the first half...

Then this picks up the second half. The pictures of my drip system will all be in this south side view since that's basically what I finished... this first length of fence in other words!

Ok, now we are IN the backyard. You know that area in the far left hand side of the first two pictures? This is it, up close. And the first area I have finished the drip setup. Please forgive the lack of plants on the right hand side up against the house. I just dug out that area (100+ square feet!) this weekend. This whole area was grass and overgrown shrubs. Each side is roughly 30 feet long and I went out about 3.5 feet. The area at then end is kind of an odd shaped area. The other side of the fence at that end part is my front porch area. This picture is with the drip system turned on so you can get the full effect. :)

Just as an overview- I have 2 sprinkler/mister type emitters on each long side of this bed. I set them up to slightly overlap so that I know everything is getting hit. Then I put one more 360 degree sprayer at the far end of the bed. The two hanging baskets each have a spray mister (more pictures of that later). So grand total I have 7 emitters in this section.

This message was edited May 9, 2005 7:02 PM

Ok, I'll start the explanation of how I set it up here. This is just a shot of where it hooks into the faucet. If you look in that third shot, just to your right is where the faucet is. When I talked about running my main line as a 1/4 tube at first, this is what I meant. BIG mistake. So I pulled that all out (the main line) and changed to this 1/2 tubing. By "main line" I mean it starts here at the faucet and runs the entire perimeter of my yard. I will do the tour around the yard in a second. This main line is what I branch off of to run water where I want it and hook my 1/4 tubing and attachments to. I really hope this makes sense and y'all can follow me!

Now we are rounding the side of the house. See how the main line is up against the house? Now I could have run that 1/4 tube to a "button" dripper and put it on a little stake (pics of that setup later) and put it right at the root ball of that fountain grass to your right (first plant on this side of the bed!). I instead opted for the sprayer type. This sprayer adjusts so you can do 360, 180, 90 degree pattern, or a "narrow line." That's what I did since this is a narrow bed. This particular attachment is NOT adjustable as far as turning the water pressure up or down. Basically you just punch a hole (with the special tool) in the main 1/2 tube, insert a fitting, and attach the 1/4 tube to the fitting. The other end of the 1/4 tube goes into whatever emitter you selected. For the record, this bed will have lots of stuff in it which is why I want the whole bed sprayed. Had I gone with 3 or 4 foundation shrubs with no intent of filling the bed with plants, 4 of the "button" drippers would have been an arguably better option. It's up to you!

We have just come down that same side a bit to the 2nd sprayer. My second additions to this bed were 3 dwarf cannas which I'm not sure you can see too well. Again, I opted for an overall spray rather than a dripper to each plant. I also have 2 boston ivy planted to grow up this wall hopefully!

Now we are at that far end, and the most "planted" end of this bed. I have the one 360 degree sprayer which is NOT adjustable for spray pattern but CAN be adjusted for volume. I just moved it around and messed with the volume until I had as little water overspraying onto the concrete as possible, but still hit the whole bed.

Ok, keep coming around to your left and we are at the fence side of this long bed. I have 2 more sprayers just like on the other side in the narrow strip pattern. This is to water what I have over here which so far are climbing roses, clematis, allium, gladiolous, iris, butterfly weed and some coneflower. Obviously cannot run a button dripper to EACH plant!

Ok, here are the baskets. They have seeds in them right now so there isn't much to see, but like I said, this is to demonstrate the system, not the plants. I ran a 1/4 tube off the main 1/2 line and ran it up the big shepards hook. I hooked a 3 way fitting into the end of that tube and ran 2 separate 1/4 tubes off the other 2 spokes of that 3 way fitting. I then hooked a basket mister to each of the two ends of tubing and attached them to the baskets.

Not very interesting, but just to demonstrate. There is nothing planted for then next 60 feet or so, but that 1/2 main line is just running on the ground at the fence line allll the way around the yard. So I can add emitters when/if I add plants to this section of the yard.

And here we are at the next section- nothing hooked up here.

And now we get into the full shade bed. This is just an almost overview- please ignore Apollo's rear end in the shot! The first tree is that weeping bald cypress which DOES have it's own button dripper since the sprayers aren't hitting it. But that japanese maple further on down gets soaked by the spray emitters that you can't see (to the left) so I did NOT give it a button dripper. The big tree in the middle just gets what falls from the sky and seems fine.

Here is the bald cypress with it's button dripper up close. This is to show you that other option of individual drippers run to single plants/trees/shrubs. You can also hook these up in a series of buttons to water big trees.

Here we are going on around into the shade bed. Each side of that oak tree has a half circle sprayer in it. These are also NOT adjustable as to pattern, but ARE adjustable as to volume. I have this one turned up high, but the other one is kind of low. The one on the other side is also the one that waters the japanese maple. I have hostas around the base of this tree in front of the lirope, but only ONE has come back. I may be planting more but I won't lament that here. This is the bed that contractors inadvertantly filled with nasty rocky dirt and undid all the amending I had done. I think that killed my hostas. Anyway, that container to the left does NOT have a basket dripper b/c it gets soaked by that sprayer you see there. Keep looking to the left of that container and you will see the fence, I have impatiens, elephant ear bulbs and caladiums (not up yet) in that bed which will be my next picture. Between the 2 I have several other plants that get hit between the sprayer in this picture and the sprayer in the next shot.

And here is that bed on the other side of the fence from the picture above. This is one 360 sprayer adjustable for volume but not spray pattern. And again I moved it around and adjusted the volume until I had covered the whole area with as little overspray as possilbe on to the sidewalk and driveway. That is actually the last emitter I got installed. But just to go around the rest of the yard...

This message was edited May 9, 2005 7:50 PM

If we keep going left and circling around, this is a small shade bed in front of the garage. I am thinking one half or full circle pattern sprayer and turning the volume down low. But here, even if it oversprays all it does is water the yard!

To the left of that (see how we are now on the other side of the garage door?) is my "triangle" bed. This area is out of the canopy of those big trees so it gets more like part sun. Oh, the 1/2 inch main line just runs down the fence line and in front of the garage, but behind the trellis in both this picture and the one just before it.

And we keep coming around to the beginning of the long bed along my fence on the north side of the yard. For the triangle bed, now in full view, I am thinking that a 1/4 spray pattern in each corner will work. I will adjust the volume until I get full coverage into the center of the bed. In this case, we are putting a 4 ft pathway in front of this bed to lead to the garage so I am concerned about overflow... don't want to water rocks!

And into the north side fence bed as I call it. I do have a fig (you can see it) and an oleander to the right... I hacked it back in late winter so the new growth is just coming up. Those also just get what falls down in the form of rain and do fine so I'm not doing button drippers for them either.

It's the home stretch folks! This is just continuing on down that same bed. The main 1/2 inch line just runs down the fence line here. It is about 5 feet wide so I don't think the strip pattern will work like in those first pictures. I am either doing full pattern turned down low, or maybe even put the 1/2 pattern ones at the EDGE of the bed with the non-water spraying side facing the sidewalk. Then I can just adjust the volume to the point that it goes just to the fence line.

Last one. I will just take the 1/2 main line to the end there and cap it off. If I run out of pressure, there is a faucet just out of view. I will just hook up to that end and run half the lenght off one faucet and half off the other. But I don't think that will be an issue. Also, I have a timer set up so this will run itself! :)

Hope this was helpful. Probably not, but ya never know. :)

Texasgarden,
This is very helpful.
I have installed my own drip system which will just be attached to the outside faucet also. Or I shall say I am installing it right now.
I have laid down some of the soaker tube 1/4" lines in the veg. garden from the mainline, 1/2". Have them working ok but may need to do something else since the soakers don't reach everything.
I have run the mainline thru the flower beds, both the front and backyard.
I do have a few questions for you tho.
Some places the mainline is directly next to some rhodies and certain plants that I will want to water. My question on this is: I don't want to spray the rhodies or certain plants, but want to drip them? I just want to hit the plants but not all over. What type of drip or sprinkler would be the best?
Next question, have you used the risers (6" & 12") with either drip or sprinkler heads directly into the mainline, instead of takin the 1/4" tubing with a sprinkler head from the mainline? Don't you waste pressure by the more line you use the less pressure you get?
That is all the questions I can think of right now, but if you know the answers, I would really appreciate your comments.
Carol

Hey Carol-

Let me address the pressure question first. The guy at our local Home Depot that actually set up the system they have in the garden center really schooled me on this! I was so mad at how it wasn't working and I was losing pressure, etc. He said to first get that gauge they have and measure my psi. So I did this and it was 90. Supposedly you can run 15 emitters if you have a psi of 25 so he thought I would be more than ok for what I wanted to do.

I did not go directly into the mainline for the simple reason that I like to move the stakes as I need to. I run the system full on and then go attachment by attachment either adjusting the volume or physically moving it to a different spot as needed. The 1/4 "slack" lets me do that rather than have to do a "goof plug" and punch another hole in the hose. He said that should not affect pressure. You can run 10 feet of 1/4 inch up to a hanging basket if you need to. It is my understanding that it should not affect pressure that much. In fact, I got a good deal of the way around before that 1/4 as a main line started being a problem. We have 1/4 as the mainline in the front yard with probably 6 attachments and so far the pressure has been fine. The thing that drains pressure is punching a hole in that main water line, regardless of it being a direct attachment INTO the hose or branching a 1/4 tube off it. That's just how I understand it anyway!

I think in the 5th block down I talk about what type of drippers to use for what purpose. I really think if 5 different people set up a drip system in the same yard, they would do it 5 different ways! If you have large plants, shrubs, trees, stuff that needs lots of water, stuff that you don't want the foliage to be sprayed, I would say use the "button" drippers. So far I have only used one of those and it is on my cypress- that is in the 13th picture I think. I just don't see how that is feasible in a full on flowerbed. I guess you could put a dripper in a clump of plants, but I would think you want the ground to get wet and you can't feasibly put a dripper at the base of 50 perennials. Does that make sense? Now for instance, if you have roses out in full sun with drought tolerant perennials at the base of the roses, I think you could do a dripper on each rose. They get watered deeply and the other plants get the benefit of it even if it isn't a full soak for them. If they are truly drought tolerant they should be fine. Some people don't like wetting rose foliage at all if possible so I could see that as an option there. I really think it depends on what your set up is, what you have planted, how often you water, and how much pressure you have... remember with each hole punch you are "using up" your psi allowance! Also, you can get the attachments where you can turn the volume down and/or push the stakes down in the ground further if you want to minimize the water from spraying all over your plants.

Does that help?

Yes, this does help. I will just have to play with it, I guess. I didn't want to spend all the time cutting the 1/4" tubing, making up sprinkler heads and all. That is why I was going to do directly into the mainline, but I agree that you have more flexibility with the tubing.
I am not worried about pressure. The guy who helped me with the drip system, he does it for a living, says I have enough pressure from the city water. He isn't always available to ask questions to, so...
So thanks for your ideas.
Carol

Thanks Texas Garden for the tour. It is helpful, you gave me some ideas about how to set up the system for some additional beds that need to be watered. Maybe we need a watering system forum. lol

No kidding! I know this was a lot of pictures and stuff to read but I know for me, I was wanting something DETAILED with lots of pictures. Guess I'm kinda "simple" like that- you know, I need you to explain it to me like I'm a 5 year old. LOL!

Carol- once I got my system down, the 1/4 didn't really add much in the way of taking a lot of time. You just need to make sure you have a lighter on hand to heat up the end of the tube a bit, then quickly put the fitting in. This worked WONDERS for me- a tip I got from somone on DG, just can't recall who or where. :)

Wow, it looks great. I have this system in my veggie garden. I love it. I also love love love your fence!

Thanks Sue- it's about the only thing the previous owner added to this house that I actually liked! :)

Great job Jamie. :) It was a lot of information, but I soaked every bit of it up. Now I can't wait to have a yard to try it on.

Thanks Staci- wish I could afford to just have an underground sprinkler system installed with a zone for each garden area and one for the lawn, but oh well. It's on the wish list! Maybe your new house will have a sprinkler system! :)

Hopefully. :)

Hi Jamie,
Your information has been helpful. I've been giving my watering system a lot of thought, and I went out and got my measurements, or as many as I could, the rest will have to be just "winged" because of how my beds are. Anyway, I've decided I am going to do something similar to what you have done. There is an elderly man I visit with, and he is a rose grower, and he showed me how he set-up his system, and what he used, and it's very similar to what you have done. I am going to put a timer on my main water faucet, and probably put the timer inside the house, then I have to run pvc pipe from the faucet to the east side of my house, which is about 50', come up with another faucet, attaching the silinoid, then running my 1/2" black pipe along my beds, which I'll need over 200' of this, then use the adjustable sprayers for watering most of my plants. I grow a lot of tropicals, and banana's take in 3/4 of their water through their leaves, so I am going to raise the sprayers up off of the ground so the water hits their leaves, then also have other water sprayers at the bases, within the bed, for the other plants under the banana's. I'm pretty excited to get it going. Watering my yard by hand so my plants get sufficient water is just not practical anymore, so the sooner I can get this going the better-off my plants will be. Thanks for posting all of your pictures, and I'm sure your plants are so much happier with constant water available. You don't have your system set-up on a timing system?
Or, did I miss this part where you explained that you did? If you don't, I'm curious as to why not? Anyway...thanks for sharing the link. Good info for all of us.

Hi Grayse- glad it helped! Sounds like you DO need a more automatic system huh?! I do have mine on a timer but the whole thing will be watered at once- no "zones" I mean. I am not running it as such right now b/c I have not set it up all the way. Once I finish getting all those emitters in I will set up the timer I bought.

texasgarden, thank you for posting this.

It is one thing to read the installation directions from the back of the box, and another to actually see a setup in place. Very helpful.

Also, it was a quite a pleasure to view the pictures. Such a lovely yard and neighborhood. Thank you!

Thanks SweetPea! My husband kept telling me how it would work and I kept saying "I can't picture things like that, I need to SEE it." I am the same with with floorplans and stuff. I can't visulize how a house or apartment looks by looking at a floorplan. And I can't picture how plants will look in a grouping- I need to plant them, decide I don't like the way it looks, then move it. Ha!

We live in the Winnetka Heights Historic District about 5 miles from downtown Dallas. There are some very cool houses around here and I love that we have mature trees and gardens around us. IMO, it beats the cookie cutter suburbia look!

Jamie

Well, my husband came up with a pretty cool design for my watering system, and it's getting a bit more complicated than I imagined it would be, but as long as it gets done correctly, that's all I care about.
I am using my hose and sprinkler for time being, and it's working just fine. We have water restrictions here, so I can only water with an automated system 3x a week, and I'll use the hose in between, if needed. All in good time.

Jamie, thanks for all the details. I've been looking at these too. Maybe you can answer some questions for me? To help design my yard.

How many total emitters do you have?
How many do you intend to add?
Did you get the system at Home Depot, and what brand is it?
What is your total footage in 1/2" main line?
Are there places where the line has to cross walkways, doorways, etc, and how did you handle that? (I fear tripping)
You have 90 psi water pressure, and that seems to be enough to run the whole yard on one zone?

You make this look really easy! Thanks for sharing your yard, and I enjoyed seeing bits of Apollo in your photos!

Sylvia- why did I know you of all people would notice the glimpses of Apollo? :)

Let me try to answer your questions-

How many total emitters do you have? So far, in what was pictured, 11 which includes the 2 hanging baskets.
How many do you intend to add? Probably 6 or 7 more
Did you get the system at Home Depot, and what brand is it? Yes, HD. I think it's like Rain Bird or something? They just have an entire section with emitters and tubes. I think it's all the same brand but they seem to be kind of a Universal fit kind of thing. I didn't get a "kit" or whatever. Just 225 ft of 1/2 tube, a big roll of 1/4 tube, the hole punch thing, and emitters.

What is your total footage in 1/2" main line? About 225 feet.

Are there places where the line has to cross walkways, doorways, etc, and how did you handle that? (I fear tripping). Yes- if you look in the 16th and 17th shots you will see where it crosses in front of the garage door. Abe (husband) said I could use the elbow joiners to make 90 degree angles and run it up and over the door frame. I did that with the 1/4 inch at first but I think the 1/2 is too noticable. Most likely I will dig little trench and bury it. We are installing a pathway sometime in the not-to-distant future and it would end up under gravel and flagstone. If it doesn't look too horrible, I may just run it over the door. Oh, the purpose of cutting the hose and doing elbow joints is so you don't "kink" the line getting it over the door.

You have 90 psi water pressure, and that seems to be enough to run the whole yard on one zone? That's what they tell me! The garage door marks roughly the halfway point around the yard. If it doesn't prove to be enough pressure, I will cut off the first "zone" there and then use the faucet on the opposite side of the yard to run the 2nd "zone." This would also solve the previously addressed issue of the main line running in front of the garage door! I will just stop the first zone at the right side of the door and pick up the second zone on the left side. Make sense? BUT I would prefer it to run on one zone and then just deal with the hose in front of the door issue.

Hope that helps!

Thanks so much Jamie! I am really starting to get my plan together now. Just think, when your watering is automated, you can start on your pond!

I know! I cannot WAIT! And that needs to be started sooner rather than later. I already planted 6 hosta at the back of the pond- about 1.5 feet between the house and the pond and I put hosta all down that strip. Anyway, the other day I was wondering what all the "gnats" were about around my hosta so I went to check on them. Yeah, not so much gnats as they were MOSQUITOES!!!! That stagnant nasty water is a lovely breeding ground. And it stays just full enough of water to attract them. Blah! So it's a priority for sure!