If you’ve ever grown a garden, you know one of the hardest thing about it is consistent watering during drier spells. I have had a full garden growing before and then took vacation for a week, only to find my plants dying from thirst. I have also taken time from each of my days to stand out there and water one garden bed at a time. I have thought about adding irrigation to my garden, but each time I talk myself out of it because I don’t know where to begin.

This is the year

I decided this is the year I’m going to add irrigation. It’s the third year for my garden at this house and I am going to do it!

Where do I start?

I started with dripdepot.com. Not only does that website have the supplies, but it also has videos for planning and installation. All I need to do is watch the videos and follow the instructions. Easy, right?

Planning

I watched the video and I think it sounds easy enough. He says that I need to measure the entire distance for my main line. He also said to measure the height of the beds because that will be main line. He said I would need the elbows for each bed and that it is recommended to have shut off valves for each bed. Oh, and I also need to measure the distance I need for each drip line. I think I understand what I need to do.

Measure! Measure! Measure!

I begin by taking measurements of everything in the garden.

Place the order

I total up everything I think I need and place the order. I started with an irrigation kit and then customized it. I hope that what I need for connecting the hose to the lines is correct in the order. I didn’t follow all of the instructions in the video because I am doing part of it my way.

It arrives

I’m so excited! I can’t wait for the weekend when I’ll have time to try my hand at installing the lines. It is very slow going at first. I am afraid to cut the main line wrong. I am afraid to put the wrong connector on it. But I move beyond the fear and it start flowing. I am only partially using my plan (partly because I can’t find my diagram).

Not quite there.

I thought I knew better and didn’t follow the recommendations correctly. I figured I could save some money with a few changes when I placed that first order. NOPE. I should have followed the recommendations. I was short a few connectors to do it right.

Recalculate.

I now had a good idea of what I should be doing and what I needed to do to finish installing the lines. I took extra care to make more measurements and a plan so I could place one more order to dripdepot.com. I order some more main line (just in case).

Waiting again!

Finally!

The order arrives and I go to work. I’m now a pro, right? Good thing I ordered the additional main line. When I watched the video again on how to install the drip line off of the main line, I realized I should have brought the line up at the corner of the raised bed instead of the middle. Remove the connectors, adjust the line, and reinsert.

Fingers Crossed

I finally had it all run. It was now time hook up the hose, cross my fingers, and hope I’d done it right. I closed all of the shut-off valves, and turned on the hose. Then I go to each of the end of line connectors and flush the lines. Finally, I open all the connectors and let the lines all run for a short amount of time. Almost done. As the water runs, I notice a couple of the drip line plugs have come out. I put them in backward. Luckily, that was a fairly easy fix.

Success!

Yeah, I know it doesn’t look like it would if a professional had installed it. I did it! I don’t need it to be exactly like a pro install for it to help me water my garden this summer.