Today I worked outside from 9 am until about 6 pm. Very busy day – and it all was getting the PVC irrigation system tied into the rain barrels and checking everything. Well, I also had to make the PVC fence structure so the deer stay out of the front garden.
It takes a lot of PVC pipe, let me tell ya. But, when it was all done, I was extremely impressed at how well it works! My neighbor is a plumber and was telling me that I wouldn't have enough pressure to run the system, but it turned out to be just perfect.
The trouble with the front garden beds is that the front yard slopes downards toward the road. Within the 20 foot length, the drop was about two feet.
So I needed to find a way to level this out – otherwise if I just put the PVC irrigation pipe right on top, the pressure through the 1/16-inch holes in the pipe would be more at the lowest point – starving the holes at the highest point of the pipe of anything. I ran into this last year – and the watering was not very consistent amongst the gardening area.
I started at the top of the "hill" and used a level – and made vertical PVC pieces down the beds. After doing this, I got some more PVC pipe and some T-connectors and connected the pipe together on either side of the bed – then I put the actual irrigation pipe right over the top. Worked perfect – and the tests were successful.
There are a total of 120 holes in the pipes – there is 120 feet of PVC pipe with a hole every foot (because corn will be planted a foot apart). After I turned on the automatic water timer, it took about a minute but every single hole was allowing water out. Very pleased with the result!
I did have to make a minor adjustment to the main pipe. From the rain barrels, I decided to make one main PVC line that went from the barrels all the way to the front yard. This length was a total of 110 feet. I also put in a T-connector in the main line to hook the automatic water timer in for the garden beside the house and the garden behind the garage. Because this was such a long distance, I used 3/4-inch PVC pipe. This way there is less restriction in the main line. Originally I used 1/2-inch PVC pipe and the pressure up front was horrible. After the change, it seemed like the pressure at least doubled!
The below video was made after everything was done. It goes over the rain barrel system, the PVC irrigation system, and gives a few glances at the strawberry pyramid and grape arbor. It also shows three of the gardening areas I just spoke about – the one behind the garage, the one next to the house, and the one in the front yard.