I put together this DIY soaker hose irrigation system for my raised bed vegetable garden and made a video for you. With this and a timer, I don't have to spend time watering by hand, and wasting water. Soaker hoses are great for slowly watering your garden while saving water. In another video I show how to run a garden hose underground to your garden beds.
Steps to build your DIY soaker hose irrigation system:
The video explains it quite well, I think, but here are some photos and tips to make it all work.
Soaker hose is available in a few different diameters. Lately I've been seeing mostly ⅜" diameter hose. Buy the hose tubing connectors that match your diameter. Either a farm supply store or a hardware store will probably have the T and elbow connectors.
Soaker hose is easiest to work with when it has been sitting in the sun for a few hours. Lay it out flat, use some rocks to hold the ends and keep it from curling. It cuts easily with a wire cutters or scissors. Be sure to cut off about 6" of hose with the feed end of the hose before cutting the lateral lengths that run down the bed.
If your hose pressure is enough to pop out the elbows and Ts, use wire or cable ties to connect the hoses. At the hose ends, I use a wooden dowel or bend over the end of the hose. Sometimes bending the hose doesn't work.
Parts needed for this project:
Here is a diagram of the watering system for my raised bed vegetable garden:
For my beds, I run a hose across the bottom end of the bed for a trellis. I usually plant snow peas or beans on a trellis at both ends, and the lateral soaker hoses don't do a great job of getting to all the seeds I plant along that edge.
For connecting the garden hose to the bed, I show in this soaker hose installation video how I bury the hose so the lawn mower doesn't run over it.
I have found it best to use your soaker hose drip irrigation system once or twice a week in the early morning, you want long deep watering, not short shallow watering. Here is a garden hose timer that works well for automated watering.
Sarah
Great video! Just what I was looking for, and fun to watch as well! Love your dogs. 🙂
Eric
@Sarah good to hear! I like the soaker hose drip irrigation as its easier to deal with, and it doesn't break in winter. thx!
Sarah
@Eric I got it all set up this week and it's working great! By the way, I found the PERFECT repurposed parts to use at the ends: Those plastic-capped corks from liquor bottles! I just tapered the corks, and the black caps blend in nicely.
I just have one minor problem, and I wonder if you have any suggestions. It seems that the end of the line gets less water than the beginning (which makes sense). A bed near the beginning of my system is getting more than it needs and is more sloped, so there's more runoff. The beds at the end are not getting enough. I'd rather not re-route the whole thing... Would adding holes to the end sections be enough to solve my problem? Or is there some kind of tape I can wrap around sections of the too-much part to lessen the flow? Thanks a bunch!
Eric
great to hear. what I have done is make the soaker hose a loop basically. both ends of the soaker hose attach to the timer-faucet. that way there is more equal pressure throughout the hose. thx!
Michael Neeb
How long do you run your soaker hose for tomatoes and zucchini?
LInda-Claire Steager
I feel much more confident to get my system set up.