The Self-Watering Drip Irrigation System

I love my garden. I could spend hours in there pruning, weeding, staking, and giving them all sorts of TLC. These enjoyments are also the same downsides to maintaining a garden. This is my third year gardening and I used to worry over who would take care of my plants while I was on holiday. In the first year, I asked my neighbor to water the garden in my absence. Then sometimes I asked my in-laws. But my husband and I were off on weekend trips so often in the last two years that it seemed unfair to always rely on others to help us out. This year, I sought to do something about it. I wanted to be able to give my thirsty vegetables water AND still be able to go away when I needed to. Enter the self-watering drip irrigation system.

Aside from saving you time, installing a drip irrigation system also helps to reduce your water usage. Since the tubes are set close to the soil, the water gets right to the roots and there is less evaporation or run-off. If you know me, I love when things run and are used efficiently!

My garden is made up of raised beds and they’re as far away from the water source as can be. Connecting a drip irrigation system without digging up land was going to take some creativity. Luckily, I found an awesome specialist at Home Depot to help me with this. Honestly, their customer service has improved a million times over the years. Does anyone agree?

Here’s a drawing of my garden and the pipes I laid out:

The system runs on a main pipe that is connected to your water source. You punch holes in the main pipe where you want your water to come out of. Here is a photo tutorial for you:

The options for your watering needs can be customized with sprinklers, soaker tubings, shut-off valves, drip tubing, etc etc. Seriously, you’ll go cross-eyed looking at all the options that basically have the same name.

My drip irrigation system is comprised of various parts and pieces. There are so many options at Home Depot that it would be impossible to review all of them with you. I will highlight some of the ones I’ve tested and used to help you get started. All of these items are found in the plumbing section (not the garden center).

The most important component to all this is the timer. Without the timer, I could not have a self-watering garden. I use the Gardena timer - also found at Home Depot. I love this timer! It starts and ends the watering exactly when I’ve set it to. It saves me so much time and stress. I can sleep in or get carried away with my design projects or go away on holiday and not have to worry that my vegetables aren’t getting watered. This timer is everything.

Here are some tips to get your drip irrigation system in good working order:

1. If you have raised beds like I do, you can use elbow connectors to wrap the pipes tightly around the beds like this:

Or you can just do this:

But it doesn’t look as pretty, does it? Either method does not seem to affect the water pressure.

2. When pinning down your pipes, criss-cross two pins together for extra hold. I found that the pipes don’t like to stay on the ground when I only used one pin.

3. Use these stakes to hold your tubings in place. They also work well to keep your sprinkler heads flat and above the soil.

4. You’ll find that you have low water pressure when you run a single tubing off the main pipe. However, if you connect the end of that tube back to the main pipe, you’ll have strong water pressure again.

5. Do not bury your soaker tubings under soil. The soil will clog the holes and won’t be effective.

The project took the better part of the weekend to pull together. First of all, we have a good-sized garden (I think the main pipe was about 50′ long), and secondly, there was a lot of trial and error involved. Some valves worked better than others and some were complete duds. I couldn’t know this by looking at the pictures. Had to install them and try them out to know which ones worked best for me. Thank God for Home Depot’s easy return policy! I think I spent more time at Home Depot picking up and exchanging parts than I did in hooking up the system.

Like anything else, putting in the effort up front will pay off. The sound of water trickling in the morning without me having to lift a finger has been music to my ears.

Have you installed a drip irrigation system? What are your thoughts about using this system? Do you have any other tips to share?

I’ve linked up this project at these parties here.