Hi K Ill,

Do you know what flow (gpm) and pressure (psi) your connection point provides. If you don't know I can help you find out. This info will be the basis of your system design.

I have never had to winterize a system and there is info explaining how to do it in past threads. Basically if you can provide a valved drain point (lowest part of the system) that can flow away, you just drain your system out each winter. Another way is to shoot fairly low pressure air into your system and blow out the water before winter.

Oh yeah don't forget to compost. Check out the compost forum.

GL Aloha

GL,

Thanks for the reply. I don't know the GPM or PSI. I need to check that at the outside faucet, right? I think I've read in another post how to measure the GPM. I need to fill a bucket and time it, right? I will do that this weekend. I don't know about the PSI. We do have city water, but we sit quite a way from the mainline/water meter. I don't know if that will have any bearing on the PSI.

Unfortunately our land is as flat as a pancake, so I won't have a low spot, unless I put it underground. But we do have an air compresser, so we could do that to clear the lines for winter.

I'll get that tested this weekend, and post back early next week. I appreciate your help!

Karen

Hi Karen,

Yes, fill a five-gallon bucket and time it, then convert the reading to gallons per minute. Checking psi is fairly easy, it requires buying a pressure gauge that fits on your house spigot. It cost around $10 at a hardware or irrigation supply store. Pressure only relates to size of pipe while the water runs through it. Friction of water flowing caused by the water pressure increases as the size of your water line gets smaller. Knowing water pressure allows one to design the economical size of your mainline. Pressure from the municipal source will be around 60 to 80 psi. The house pressure regulator(usually in your garage)drops this pressure to 45-55 psi for comfortable use in the house. Most landscapers connect irrigation from the line going to the house from the street to make use of the higher pressure. This minimizes the zones needed because each zone or sprinkler group use up pressure when operating. More pressure more heads per zone. Probably to much info.

On another note, some gardeners raise the beds and create artificial slope to even out the water flow from each emitter. About 1.5% slope (1.5 ft height per 100 ft run)allows the water maintain even flow as it loses pressure along the lateral lines. You can have your main go to the raised end of the garden and connect to an above ground lateral system that travels on the surface of your gardens. These laterals can be removed for winter or when you recondition the soil in your garden. Wow, even more information. Gl. Aloha.

I would suggest that you read the drip irrigation section of www.irrigationtutorials.com

What I can summarise off the top of my head from reading the tutorial is that once you are down to 1/2" drip tubing, you don't want to go more than something like 300 feet from the connection point to an emmiter.

Buy burying a 3/4" PVC pipe from the house out to the places to do the irrigation, your connection point would become where you tie into the 3/4" PVC. And if you really don't want to have to worry about distances, run 3/4" PVC from the house to the back of the yard, then split the PVC into three paths, one to the center (if you wish to irrigate the trees) and one to each side of the yard. When it comes to flow, 3/4" PVC can handle more than two 1/2" drip irrigation tubes.

And if you really want to over engineer an irrigation system with lots of flexability, go back to the meter, tie into the meter with a back flow preventer and then run 1" PVC from the meter to the back of the house. At the back of the house, setup a manifold of automatic sprinkler valves and then run seperate circuits of 3/4" PVC to each section you wish to irrigate in the back yard. Where this type of setup can really come in handy is if you have varying irrigation needs.

As an example, I have several roses around my house. Some are planted in the ground and need watering every other or every third day. But the ones that are above ground in pots need watering every day (especially during the hot summer months). So the thing I did was ran a pair of 3/4" PVC lines all around my yard. One pipe was for in-ground roses, the other was for container roses. Where ever the pipes went by a bed of roses, I tied 1/2" drip tubing into the 3/4" inch line for in-ground roses. Where ever the pipes went by container roses, I tied 1/2" drip tubing into the other 3/4" inch line. That way, I can water all my in-ground roses at the same time or my container roses at the same time, and place the two different setups on different watering schedules.