Ultra cheap and easy irrigation system using an old garden hose

[Annette]

Today we have just installed a super cheap irrigation system in our raised vegie bed using lengths of an old garden hose and a few plastic elbow and T-joints etc.

We cut the hose to the desired lengths, clamped the ends and drilled the holes along the hose with a 2mm drill bit at 100mm distances. We then attached the elbow and T-joints and attached the system to the edge of the raised garden bed. The raised bed is 4ft x 8ft so along the long side we placed each length of hose 1 foot in from the edge which gives us the perfect coverage of the whole bed. It took us about 30-45 minutes.

The total cost was under $10 and it works like a charm so we are now going to install another one in the other raised bed. This will now cut down on watering time, save us on water bills but it will also water the vegies at the base of the plants instead of on the leaves reducing the chance of fungal growth.

We had considered using poly pipe or PVC pipe but had the surplus garden hose anyway so we thought we would give it a go. 

Any suggestion to improve on this design would be more than welcome. 

[Annette]

Thank you @Brad and @Andy_Mann - another mystery solved. Boy, it will actually sound like I know what I'm talking about when I next visit the hardware store 

[Trying]

Hi@Annette, You are amazing - you have just delivered the perfect answer for me with your watering system. Thank you so much. I love reading your posts as you bring so much excitement and passion to Workshop. Good job!  Cheers

[Annette]

Thanks @Trying - greatly appreciated. I hope your watering system works as well as mine. It is going to make our lives so much easier this year in regard to watering the vegie patch. We have had a bit of rain each day for the last 3 days here so we really haven't had to water much at all. Yayyyyyyy

[Farside]

@Annette

great job on the irrigation and very flexible as you change your garden around. One question ... how did you do those four post enclosures for the tomato plants?  I have some three post kits and found those pretty good.

[kowe76]

Great idea. Thanks

[Aussie-Garden]

Love this!

I usually have to garden with a very small budget, so I'm looking forward to doing this with my bits and pieces and Bunnings will be able to deliver or click and collect the parts I don't have.

[Jason]

Many thanks for joining in the discussion @kowe76. Let us know if you need a hand with implementing this idea or any other project at your place. 

As you can see, we have loads of clever and creative members sharing helpful information, advice and inspiration on the site every day so we are really pleased you could join us.

Please let me know if you ever need a hand getting the most from the site.

Welcome,

Jason

[neejchee]

I know this is many years old, but I'm replying anyway to say thanks for the great ideas. I'm going to have to walk into bunnings with this to ask for help finding the T joints, because bunnings online search function is useless, but I'm definitely going to give this a shot for watering my fruit trees!

[MitchellMc]

Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community @neejchee. It's fantastic to have you join us and many thanks for jumping into the conversation.

Here's the Pope 13mm Barbed Poly Tee you were looking for on the Bunnings website.

We look forward to following your irrigation project and encourage you to let us know if you need any help or would like to share it with us.

Mitchell

[Aussiebuoy]

Hi @Annette, 

Firstly, congratulations on such an innovative and cost-effective solution for watering your vegetables.

Out of interest, did you fit a pressure reducer and/or filter to the garden tap?

Also, what is the distance from the tap to the end of your garden hose (ie, the maximum/total length of hose)?  Have you noticed a drop in pressure at the end of the irrigation hose?

Regards,

Aussiebuoy.