mostlygardening

I have ‘the basics’ done on the first bed that I’ve tried my hand at irrigating. I have a valve on my ‘regular’ sprinkler system set aside to eventually control this area. And each bed will have a shut off so I don’t have to water everything the same amount. But I’ll be able to give them water if I want to go on vacation, in August, in sweltering, inland, Southern California. (And I usually do.) But for right now, I’ll ‘build’ one bed at a time and make it connectable to the hose.

I spent countless hours agonizing whether to run 4 lines, one down the center of each row of squares, or 5 lines, one at each of the ’seams’ of the squares. I went with four. It was a coin toss, but that was my first idea, so I decided to stick with it. I ran the lines to the right of the right two rows, and two the left of the left two rows.

The next dilemma was what kind of drippers to use and how far apart to place them. I went with the 1 gph button drippers and spaced them 6″ apart, roughly. In the 8 foot rows, I placed them at about the 3″ and 9″ marks. Since I’ve got 4, 8 foot rows, I needed 64 drippers. But since I was only planning to put them a foot apart initally, that prompted another trip to HD.

Those drippers are sold in packages of 5 and 25 at my local HD. The 25 packs are about $6.50. When I calculated how much I’d be spending just in drippers to do the six beds…I stopped to do a little thinking. I noticed that Dig sells them in 100 packs, my local HD just didn’t happen to have them. I asked the HD guy and he said they don’t have them right now. I asked what that meant…if it meant they’re out and they’ll have some on Tuesday…he saw them here once three years ago…or I could order them and they’d get them. He said something close to the middle choice. So that wouldn’t help. I did ask if he remembered what the cost differential was and he lectured me on the price of gas and suggested I not drive all over looking for 100 packs. When I told him about an upcoming trip to Carlsbad, and the fact that I’d probably pass 12 Lowe’s and 25 HD’s, he said I could call ahead. That was a thought.

Then…I noticed that there were different types of 1gph button drippers. More high-tech type. Hmmm. Another variable.

The pressure compensating drippers are ALOT more expensive. $5 and change for 10 of them. But at the same time I found those, in talking to the HD guy I realized that maybe every 6″ was overkill. I am so used to dealing with our awful native soil, that I hadn’t stopped to think that I’m going to be dealing with wonderful (I hope) soil in these new beds. So every twelve inches might be okay.

Here’s where my personal growth comes in…heh…

As much as I tend to want all 6 beds to be the same, I realized that the plants have different needs, so maybe different techniques of irrigation are called for. That enabled me to think that maybe the next bed I do I should use the more high-tech drippers, but space them a foot apart. So that’s the plan for today.

When I rotate crops, I can just switch the irrigation grids too. Cool, cool.

Then, the coup-de-gras…the company that makes the irrigation supplies, Dig, is in Vista, CA.

I went to Carlsbad as planned yesterday. Guess what town is one or two towns away…yep, Vista.

I don’t know if you can buy direct. But I can check it out. So after I do the second bed today (I hope), I can make a pretty good parts list and pick things up when I head back down there in a couple weeks.