eliminating watering woes

It's April 14 and another update is upon us. After enlarging the garden last year the time it takes to hand water has increased to where it gets down right aggravating. Especially after working all day. I decided to do something about it and am in the process of installing a drip irrigation system to all the beds. This will eliminate uneven watering and help to keep from getting the leaves wet which will discourage disease. Since the weather has been really hot and dry this year so far hand watering has been less effective. You can water a bed and then dig down a ways and find dry to the bone soil. This is mainly because you put down way less water than you think unless you stand there for a while to make sure everything is soaked.

Let's get to pics of the project and garden. First a shot of the not so sweet sweet onions from Lowe's.

Now on to the drip project. Here are some of the parts. A 20 psi pressure regulator in the center and a swivel hose bib on the left used to connect the 1/2 inch drip tubing to the main water line. The bottom shows the end of the pvc water line. The regulator attaches to it.. The 1/2 inch connector connects to the tubing by sliding the tubing over the end of it and then screwing the connector tight over the tube end. This way you can takie it apart by just unscrewing it. There are also compression fittings which are a little cheaper but once attached they cannot be taken apart.
 

The above assembly attaches to a 1" ball valve at each bed which allows for turning the water off or on for each individual bed.

Here I used a Claber 8410 dual outlet battery operated water timer. I figured 2 zones would be fine to start with. If I need more zone capabilities then I can just add another timer.

This shows a flushable  water filter with a 155 mesh screen filter element. The drip line recommends 150 mesh or greater so this should work fine.

Here is how the assembly leads up to each bed. From here the 1/2 inch tubing is attached and then the 1/4 drip line is attached to it and run the length of the bed.

Here is one finished bed being tested. The drip line is rated at 1/2 gallon per hour for each emitter. The emitters are spaced every 6 inches.

This is how the tubing is attached to each hose end assembly.  A 1/2 inch perma-loc T connector connects all the 1/2 inch tubing which is then capped off at each end with a perma-loc hose cap. Then the 1/4 inch drip line is connected to the 1/2 inch by using a tubing hole punch. A 1/4 inch barbed connector is inserted into the end of the 1/4 inch tubing and then into the hole that was pouched into the 1/2 inch tubing. Each run of drip line is capped at the end with a 1/4 inch barbed goof plug.

Another bed ready to have the drip line run.

A pic of the Celebrity tomatoes after being pruned. I removed all the dying leaves and any that  were laying on the mulch getting wet when I watered. I pretty much have the Late Blight controlled. i have been spraying with Serenade and as soon as I see Blight  popping up on a leaf I trim it. This along with the hot dry weather has pretty much eliminated it.

The purple beans are really flowering well and beginning to produce pods.

More of the tomatoes in pots doing very good. Some are beginning to get a little color to them  and should be ripening before long. This means it's almost time to put up the bird netting.

Here is the Juliet tomato fruiting and growing like a champ.

A picture of a Harlequin bug on a broccoli plant leaf. These little beasties multiply like crazy and damage the plants, especially of the brassica  family, by sucking the sap from the leaves. They started out in the mustards, which is one of their favorite veggies to munch on, and began multiplying. I left them alone because I wasn't going to pick the mustards, just let them flower. Big mistake. When I pulled the mustards up they jumped to my broccoli which was next to the mustards. Even though I would kill 30 or more a day they still multiplied. I won't make that mistake again.

Another of the Texas Sweet onions ready to pick. These were started from seed last August. They are very tasty and mild.

My cucumbers and butternut squash growing up the trellises.

A butternut getting ready to bloom.

Cucumber blooms and hopefully soon to be fruit. Here you can see a female flowering fruit along with several male flower stems.

Banana peppers ripening and getting ready for harvest. They turn from pale yellow to orange and finally red when fully ripe. 

The eggplant producing machine in all it's glory. It just doesn't slow down popping out fruit faster than I can eat them. They are so tasty, too.

That's all for now. On to finishing up the drip system and then hopefully some freed up time.