Here in Santa Fe, watering efficiently is one of the biggest challenges of gardening. We can’t waste a drop.
Soaker hoses are the most efficient, but the round rubber kind can be dangerous – we all remember the saga of the soaker hose, don’t we? If not, here’s the clipping . . .
I have several flower beds in the garden and a couple of years ago, I came up with the idea of making each its own “zone’>
I carefully wind a flat weeper hose (which are not dangerous and do not bite) through each bed and put a quick-connect hose attachment on the end of it.
Then I run a main feeder hose to a central place in the garden and put a splitter on it. I attach my standard watering hose with hose gun (for watering containers) to one spigot, and a short 10′ feeder hose to the other with a quick-connect on it and a timer.
To water the zones, I just “quick-connect” the short feeder hose to each zone’s weeper hose and set the timer for 20 minutes. You can do a shorter time if you have higher water pressure than I do.
I love this system because I get to sit on the swing and read or sketch while watering in the evening.
I have been watering this way for three years now, and I finally got around to doing a journal page about it. It was fun to try to paint the elements as realistically as I could.
All the parts are available at Amazon (with Prime shipping):
Weeper Hose:
Feeder Hose:
Quick-Connect:
Orbit Manual Timers:
Orbit Programmable Timer (if you only have one zone)
None of this is expensive, and I am sharing this info in case it helps you to be able to have a garden – even in drought-stricken areas.
I have never heard of a the type of bite you suffered. I thought it was a snake when I first started reading the article. I have several flower beds and came up with a similar idea (-the timer.) I love the timer idea. We’ve had so much rain here in MI that I haven’t needed to water.
Most people aren’t as clumsy and probably don’t have the soaker hose snap around and hit them on the heel, but leave it to me – grin.
How lucky not to have to water!
That is creative thinking! With making zones out of your garden, you could even have different areas that need differing amounts of water! I bet you could even have a rainforest kind of area. If you had the other criteria, that is…. And I love your watercolor renditions and the explanatory notes. Another in your series of painting ordinary things in your life—something you emphasize that any of us can do. Great job!