Well what's the struggle there PM2? Ask away.

Hi twolips...

The struggle for me is that we seem to be routinely getting pretty dry summers now. We tend to get forecasts for a lot of days of 'scattered showers' with a 50% or less chance of rain predicted and two of the last three years, 90% of the showers seem to be missing us.

I have a medical condition that creates energy issues and heat intolerance, which limits the amount of time I can spend outdoors in the hot months. We have been renovating the whole property for the past four years and trying to add a good amount of low maintenance plants, but they are not quite established yet. We also have a lot of neighbor silver maples...six of them around our property line that requires a lot of shade plants that are not always drought tolerant. I am adding as many epimediums and hellebores as I can afford every year, because they really tolerate those conditions well, but I have a long way to go. Add to that the way the trees suck the moisture from the soil and when we really get into a deficit, watering barely is a drop in the bucket. This year, I am already seeing the effects of not enough water in the garden and it's not even July yet. We used six yards of mulch last year and half that already this year.

So, I would like to figure out what the best approach to keeping everything watered is. I have often heard..soaker hoses, but our pressure is low and it will only reach the end of one length of soaker hose. It would take a lot of connect/disconnect/connect to take care of the whole yard with soakers with just one at a time. Too many trips to the yard. I am falling back on the sprinkler, which is okay I guess, but, takes me six changes of position to do the back beds, two more for the lawn and two small beds and four raised veggie beds that need hand watering.

The front requires another four sprinkler changes. Plus containers that need hand watering.

I was just hoping for some ideas of anything different I can do to cut back on the watering chores and dragging the hose all over the yard.

Thanks
pm2

I have used Netafim in the past and it works great in the grass and in the beds. Las Vegas uses it in most of their casinos do to not being able to have water on the side walks because of the amount of people that visit. Here is the link.
http://www.netafimusa.com/ It is a great product and you can run it with low pressure and not so a lot of gallons per minute.

Here is a link that might be useful: flow_rate

Hmmm....not sure what you are going to use. Soakerhose is suppose to be your best bet at low pressure. Working best between 10-30 psi. You say you are not getting water out of the end of the soaker. How long of a soaker are you using. One individual length of soakerhose should not exceed 100', and you can use up to 600' off of one water supply. If you have lots of plants, it would be a pain to run drippers to each one. Best of luck to you Prairie.

Thank you both for the help...and for the link Ted.

twolips, your figures are odd to me. My soaker hoses are 50ft length and even two of them together doesn't allow for seepage all along the hose. I guess my pressure is low.

thanks anyway. I will check out the link ...

pm2

Hi PM2,

Do you know what your pressure is and flow rate. There is an inexpensive water pressure gauge available at most garden shops. It goes on to your hose bib. The other is to measure your flow rate by filling up a one or five gallon bucket and recording the time it takes. Both measurements would be needed to calculate your irrigation scheme; how many zones, etc. Just one irrigation scheme would be a header system that has automatic valves leading to your soaker hoses, drip lines or even mini sprinkler head system. It can come off your house hose bib. If your current system is coming off your house system, you can boost the pressure by connecting your irrigation system with a backflow preventer device to your waterline before it goes into the house pressure regulator. Need pressure and flow info to do your plan the right way.
Aloha

Hi lehua...

No, I don't know what my flow rate and pressure are. I will see if I can find the pressure gauge and try timing the fill of a 5 gallon bucket. What is a hose bib? Are you talking about the water spigot? I will get back here once I get that information, thanks.

:-)

Hi PM2,

I'm sorry, yes the spigot from your house. We are in opposite parts of the country thats why the term difference. After you make a new connection before the house pressure regulator, test the pressure from the street. This will give you an indication how good your pressure regulator is working or if you live in a low water pressure area. All good things to know before planning your system. Aloha.