Garden Plants and Rain Barrel Drip Irrigation

Getting the garden ready is always time consuming but can also be rewarding when completed. In addition, to the weeding and watering all summer, you also have to watch out for the garden pests whether they be       humans, animals or insects. That is where a good fence is handy. After a hard winter with a lot of snow, I had  to repair some of last year’s fence with new screening, wood braces and screws. I recently noticed some animals prowling he area looking for tasty vegetable leaves to eat. The gopher is back, a raccoon, a brown fox, skunks and plenty of birds. You can see some photos and a video at the web links below. Read on first.
The next chore is to rototil the soil and rake out the rocks and debris. The New England soil seems to grow rocks like potatoes. Each year I find more and more. I then add some fertilizer, compost and dry manure to replenish some of the nutrients used up by last year’s plants.

The first plantings are the potatoes and onions. These are hardy and can be planted even before the last frost which is around Memorial Day, in southern New England. I dig a trench around the outside garden fence and drop in the potato cuttings with eyes facing up about six inches apart. I then cover the potatoes with about four inches of soil and pack loosely. As the plants grow, I push more soil around the stems so the roots and potatoes grow deeper. I use the same method for the onions.

The next plants are a mix of vegetables. Although I usually start plants from seeds beginning in March, the time just passed by too quickly, so I bought some already grown plants in flats at the garden center. This year I bought three types of tomatoes (cheery, big boy and early girl). In addition, I got some eggplant, peppers, butternut squash, zucchini, romaine lettuce, and string beans. You can see a diagram of the garden and the location of plants in the photo link below.

I then placed each plant between 1 and 3 feet apart so they will have room to grow. Latter I will put six foot tall stakes and metal baskets for the tomatoes. I also tried to place the plants in a different place from last year’s plants. This helps with more nutrients and also eliminates any plant specific fungus that may be stiil around from last year. After digging each plant hole with a trowel, I place in the plant and firmly pack in the loose soil. I then make a small circular trough in the soil around the plant with the trowel so that when I water, the water stays around the plant and doesn’t run off.

This year I decided to put in a drip irrigation watering system. This conserves water, allows for slower and deeper watering, the water soaks into the soil over time and prevents water runoff. It also keeps the water at the roots where it is needed and off the leaves where fungus or mold grows on wet leaves that results when water is sprayed on the plants.

I connected the main drip hose to an elevated rain barrel, thus allowing the water to run by gravity feed through the network of hoses. This eliminates the use of garden pressure hoses or electric water pumps. There is one ½ in. main water hose that runs down the center of the garden connects to a network of ¼ in. hoses running out to each plant. On the end of each ¼ in. hose is a drip emitter that allows 1 GPH of water to drip on to the plant roots.

Later I will install a water timer to the main hose that comes out of the rain barrel. The timer will be set for about 15 minutes to provide about a quart of water to each plant. After trying several water timers, I found that most timers are made to run on the end of a garden faucet which has about 30 psi pressure. This pressure helps regulate the diaphragm valve to open and close. However, this type of timer will not work on a rain barrel gravity feed system since the water pressure is very little about (0-1 psi). Consequently, I bought a Gilmour water time that has a ball valve that does not depend on pressure and will work in the rain barrel setup.

Hopefully, my rain barrel water system with a timer will be a great addition to the garden for those times that I am away from home during the summer. No more watering the vegetable garden with garden hose in hand which normally took about an hour moving the hose around each side of the garden and soaking about 50 plants.

You can see a video clip of My “Rain Barrel Drip Irrigation System” on YouTube at the link below …
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KroiW2PWFxU
You can also see some photos of the garden plants and the rain barrel watering system by clicking on the link below….
https://picasaweb.google.com/markryan312/GardenPlants#
You can buy a drip irrigation starter kit and supplies at several places. Checkout some of the websites below…
Home Depot…. (type in the search bar…drip irrigation kits, water timers) http://homedepot.com/
Amazon….. (water timers) http://amazon.com/
DripWorks…. (kits, hoses, connectors) http://dripworks.com/
Drip Depot…. (mini emitters, connectors) http://dripdepot.com/

Comments and suggestions welcome… markryan82@comcast.net