What a great idea!
To set it up on the outside of the house----way cheaper and easier to do.

Thanks! I'm still figuring out how to use dripline and sprayers to get uniform coverage, so I still want several garden hoses with hand sprayers around the yard.

Thanks, Rick! Is screw disconnect the same as a quick-disconnect? When we have some plumbing redone soon, the guy said he'd put in an extra faucet, but of course, you never seem to have enough. I just wish they'd make connections that wouldn't break down easily.

>> Is screw disconnect the same as a quick-disconnect?

No, but a quick-disconnect would be even more convenient for letting the lawn-mower through. I'm pretty sure that a quick-disconnect lets you "unplug under pressure" without soaking your pants.

I'm just cheap, and I have so many valves in my network that I can always close off pressure to a leg and just unscrew the hose connection. That's good enough for me.

I like having all the extra valves in my network. I'm still playing around (I can't call this "designing " it!). But certainly, any branch or zone with sprayers needs a valve so that I can run drippers and dripline for hours, while the sprayers run for only 15 or so minutes.

What I found after a year or so is that I would kind of like to have the mainline that goes around the house always be pressurized so that I could run just ONE set of sprayers or drippers and nothing else. Also, then, I could spot-water anything by hand without top-watering things near sprayers.

>> if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature

I like that quote. The biochemists who WERE trying to create new genes from scratch had to give up. These guys thought they could improve on Nature and create more efficient enzymes or yeasts.

BZZZT! Wrong. They have libraries full of attempts to synthesize "better" genes, but any time they want something EFFICIENT, even for industrial processes, they have to hunt around in Nature to see what they can borrow from and perhaps tweak for specific purposes.

Then they do plug-and -play like the regular old "GMO" engineers, taking one natural gene complex for Column A from Genus Zed, and one for Column B from Kingdom Bacteria, and shoot them all into some test plant to see what they can see.

But the proud attempt to out-do nature by deduction and synthesis consistently failed. Pride goeth before a fall!

I like this idea. I just hate dragging that rubber monster around.Just to make sure I understand this, it is attached to the outside faucet right?

>> I just hate dragging that rubber monster around

Me, too! I was always dragging it over some plant or around some bush.

>> attached to the outside faucet

Yup. I used one roll of 3/4" black polyethylene irrigation "mainline" to reach from my existing outdoor spigot as far as I could. Then I ran 1/2" polyethylene branches from that, with shut-off valves.

But 3/4" mainline is overkill for me. 1/2" lines can handle 240 GPH, which is plenty.
3/4" lines can handle 480 GPH (8 gallons per minute). I'll never have that high a flow rate!

http://www.dripworks.com/categ...

I was thinking of doing this same type thing at the house we just bought. When they built it, they only put 2 outside spigots --- 1 on the west end of the house & 1 on the east end. DUH! And the house is long in between. So I need to do something & was thinking PVC but was wondering about this hose you are using.

Okay. One question. Remember I come from waaaaaayyyyyy down south where it never freezes but we get occasional freezes here. Being a freeze virgin , during winter am I going to need to disconnect everything from the outside spigot during winter? If I don't disconnect, will the tubing burst?

>> during winter am I going to need to disconnect everything from the outside spigot during winter? If I don't disconnect, will the tubing burst?

I'm not sure the tubing is guaranteed to burst with just frost, but everyone urges draining it. Personally, I think the risk would be worst for the rigid plastic connectors. .I know that a nice watering wand I owned "let go at the seams" when I left it outside over winter. It sprayed water from every imaginable place.

However, you don't have to drag hoses inside. All you need to do is unscrew something from he lowest point and let it drain. Existing drippers or spray nozzles will let air in or water out. And some can evaporate.

I propped my Tee connectors up on bricks, just to be sure that any remaining water drained away from the more expensive connectors.

Or you might let most of it drain, out then "walk" any remaining water out of any low spots by lifting the hose up to waist or chest level (above any high spots) and then walking towards the higher spots, always lifting the hose enough that the water doesn't flow back past you to the low spot. Once you've "walked" it up to the high spot, it should all run away and drain out.

The websites with lots of advice said to try to keep insects out, if you don't want to be replacing drippers and trying to unclog jets. Rubber band plus baggie. Maybe a cotton sock, if you want to encourage evaporation?

Edited to add:

Last winter I "never got around to" rolling everything up and bringing it indoors. I did drain as many legs as I could. I even left the wind-up timer full of water! I remembered that AFTER the first freeze and checked it. I couldn't even unscrew it because it was frozen right through.

This spring, expecting to need to replace the timer and many hard plastic "compression" connectors, I went outside shame-faced to find the leaks and remove them.

No leaks anywhere! I lucked out. But I urge everyone to follow the instructions and drain them dry before heavy frost.

P.S.

I sometimes found it tricky to screw one of these plastic hose connectors onto the existing spigot, when the 3/4" mainline was stiff . (My threads are pretty beat up, and I can't kneel or squat very well).

Once I happen ed to put a Y fitting onto the spigot, tightened that, and then it was easy to screw anything else onto the (clean) threads of the Y. And I could "aim" it to a better angle.

Then I discovered that the extra Y was nice to have! I have the timer and pressure regulator and the irrigation hoses on one branch, but when I want the full 45 PSI pressure to blast pots clean, I have an extra outlet right there ready for use.

>> was thinking PVC but was wondering about this hose you are using.

I'm not sure which is cheaper for a long run. For LARGE diameters like 1 inch ID, and flow rates over 480 GPH, PVC is good for long, straight runs. But I think you have to glue PVC, and it is rigid and can't be curved around beds or adapt to uneven surfaces.

But a 100 foot roll of 1/2" will support 240 GPH and only costs $16 from Dripworks. I shopped locally and found 100 feet of 3/4" mainline for $20. They have a 50' roll or 1/2" for $10.

I used to like the Compression fittings because they never restrict the flow. But they are HARD to push on! Now I like the screw-type "EZ-Loc fittings, like 90 cents to $2.60 each. And I like the irrigation-tubing-to-hose -thread Tees and ends because then I can add a garden hose, or a Y or a valve anywhere in the system .

P.S. If you order from Dripworks or find a shop, buy many extra "male hose end caps". Only thirty cents each! Then, when you need to leave a male hose fitting exposed as you drag it over rocks and gravel, screw a plastic cap over the hose end. It keeps the threads unscratched and free of grit. I leave one of those caps on any unused Y branch, just to keep dirt and grit off the threads and out of the valve seat.

AND the hose end caps keep those pesky "leaf bees" (that's what I call them, not knowing their real name) from building their leaf nests inside the hose/tubing/fittings.

Thanks Rick!

Good luck with your project. Even if it's just one roll of tubing plus one male and one female hose end, you'll save miles of walking and dragging.

Adding a few Tees and Ys-with-valves, plus a few short lengths of hose at each Tee, makes watering a pleasure.

Then, if you also add a few drippers, sprayers or spinners off the 1/2" mainline, you can make it effortless.

Rick. And with a new (to me) place, it's going to be an ever changing landscape for a while until I get it all figured out as to the end product.

Sounds like fun. And it sounds big!

Have you found the "Florida Forum " helpful?
http://garden.org/forums/view/...
'

Yes, I've been in the Fl. forum since the beginning. I used to live much farther south in Fl. than I do now. You could say I moved from 1 end of the state to the other end of the state; 2 zones north.

If gardeners had laid out the state and county lines, we would have MUCH simpler Zones!

I guess one downside of my layout (if you consider it a downside) is that all the black tubing and occasional Tees and crosses do look a little geeky. Like THAT could be a bad thing!



I learned last spring that hard freezes do not necessarily burst tubing, fittings and timers. I didn't drain my system at all well, yet NOTHING burst or sprang a leak! I think I got lucky.

P.S. If you have trouble stooping and squatting like I do, it's worth while propping up the frequently-used valves and things like timers on a cinder block or stack of bricks so you can reach them without grunting and groaning.