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Now that we know where all our plants are going to be we need to get water to them. You can do this by dragging the hose out ever couple of days and standing around for an hour or so or by installing a drip water system. We opted for a drip system to water our plants. We were a little concerned as to how difficult it would be to run irrigation to all the different places we needed to go. As it turned out this is a piece of cake project that you can do in a relatively short time. Most lawn and garden stores have all the drip line materials you'll need and associated instruction books. So what do you need me for? Mistakes and suggestions, that's what. We began by laying our the 1/2 inch main water line on the ground. We ran it from the water source, through all the flower beds and to the garden. Tip #1, it's best to do this on a warm to hot day. The tubing that they use can have quite a memory and does not want to go where you want it to go. The heat really helps it straighten out. Next we set up the water timer. We ran a short hose from the house to a "Y" so we could hook the drip system to one side and a garden hose to the other. Tip #2 and #3, buy a simple inexpensive water timer. I looked at the fancy expensive ones and for a simple drip system they were really overkill. Also, use a pressure regulator at the faucet in front of the hose that goes to the timer. We have great pressure here in Washington and after a couple weeks of constant high pressure on the hose it blew and poured water for a very long time. We haven't seen the water bill yet but it won't be a fun one. All the fittings are a simple push-in or push-on type. Here again the heat really helps because the fittings can be really tight. Tip #4, if it's too cold out and the fittings are just too hard to get on, take a warm pan of water with you to soften up the hose. Next we laid out the 1/4 inch microtubing. We ran a line to every major plan in our yard. There is a simple splice fitting that connects the microtubing to the main line. Tip #5, buy and use the neat little tool that the store has for making the holes in the hose. It is well worth the couple of bucks it costs. You can make the holes with an ice pick or something but they will leak and you'll probably poke a hole in yourself. Last you'll press on the drippers themselves and place them near the base of your plants. These little devices can be purchased with different outputs. There are 1/2 gallon, 1 gallon, 2 gallon, etc. per hour fittings. Tip #6, if you are running a single line like we did you will need to use different drippers for different applications. Flower pots may not require as much as a large plant in the ground. We put 1 gallon drippers on everything and it was a mistake. Some pots were flooded while other areas were just too dry. We still use a sprinkler to water the lawn but you can buy adapters for your drip system that will water you lawn as well. After the whole system is in place you can bury the lines under ground cover like beauty bark or pine needles or you can dig a small shallow trench. Either way it is really simple. Now get a cool one, sit down in that lawn chair and watch the plants grow.
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