Drip Irrigation
Are there any green gardeners out there who have drip irrigation systems? Did you install it yourself or did you hire a landscaper to install it? Also – is anyone collecting rainwater from their gutters to use in the garden?
Are there any green gardeners out there who have drip irrigation systems? Did you install it yourself or did you hire a landscaper to install it? Also – is anyone collecting rainwater from their gutters to use in the garden?
Rain barrels are perfectly legal in NYC. A few tips: definitely use a cover of some sort, a fine mesh screen will help with mosquitos and leaves and such.
Most barrels are fed from gutters so are next to your house. Have an overflow valve at the top and a tube attached for it to run off someplace other than right next to your foundation.
Soaker hoses work fine in gardens. They do take up more space and you really have to wind it near all the plants – in my experience the watering area is pretty small. But very easy and DIY.
I’ve seen but not used rain chains. I’ve thought about this because we have an interior gutter system now so there’s no access to divert it to a barrel.
As with most things garden related I always check the BBG site. They have this article
, http://tinyurl.com/2evrdj
I have friends that have a deep backyard (30 – 50 feet). They had their down drain (from roof gutter) run down along the back of the house – then veer out along their fense to the rear of their backyard. they had holes punched along it’s side – so when it rains, the water is directed out into their backyard. When we inquired about doing it, we were told out 20′ deep backyard was too shallow for it to work. Friends in the suburbs have a vynl socker hose attached to the end of their downspout, and it snakes through their flower beds along the side of their yard.
We use a soaker hose system that we installed ourselves. Pintchiks on bergen nr Flatbush sells the hose, as I’m sure does Home Depot and Lowe’s. Then buy a timer and you’re all set. Ee still have to do some hand watering but — with an 80ft deep Prospect Heights yard — it’s great to know the plants will get watered with or w/o us.
I installed (myself) a very entertaining device called Accurain, a computerized watering device that can water beds of any shape in any way you want, tho’ after a painful programming phase. It conserves water because it waters exactly where you want it to, and because it’s slow (less runoff). Check out accurain.com.
Great post. I did not quite know what drip irrigation was until now. I am planning on placing a rainwater barrel under the gutter spout. You could also, place a few goldfish in the rainwater barrel. They would eat the larvae. In the winter, though you would have to bring them in.
There are kits available that fit onto the downspout and redirect water away from the covered barrel when it is full.
are rain barrels legal in NYC since they are standing water? okay if covered?
Rain barrels always have covers on them and are fed from roof gutters. Mosquitos are not a problem.
dripirrigation.com has a ton of kits that are pretty easy to install. i just got one for my patio. the full kit was about $60. they also have tutorials etc….
soaker hoses are ok, but waste a lot of watering spaces inbetween your plantings. didn’t work well for me on my deck. the one i have now has individual drippers and misters that you can place anywhere you want.
drip irrigation is great for conserving water all by itself. but i do think they sell systems that are passive/gravity driven if you want to use a rainwater collection tank.
I have a soaker hose in my garden and I installed it myself. I ordered all the pieces from a store in Texas — DrDrip.com. Call them on the phone, they were really helpful. Installation was easy, I attached a timer to the spigot and a solid hose from there leading to the planting area, then attached the soaker hose and ran it under the mulch, snaking around the planting area. Definitely doable as a DIY job. As the name suggests, Dr. Drip also has drip irrigation systems.