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. 

[MitchellMc]

Hi @Aussiebuoy,

Let me mention @Annette to see if she can answer your questions about her project.

From my experience, pressure reducers and filters are only required if you are running micro/misting sprayers that clog with debris easily. It appears this project uses a limited span of tubing, and I wouldn't expect to see a significant drop in pressure at the end of the pipe. You'll notice they've split the tubing and run into two separate lines. This helps alleviate the drop in flow experienced at the end of a long single run. 

Mitchell

[Brad]

I found my system used to get blocked up with ants. Fix was to put a tap on the end of the line and start it with the tap open to flush the tubing and once it was clear shut it off to have the sprayers work.

[Aussiebuoy]

Thank you MitchellMc.

Regards,

Aussiebuoy.