Consistent watering is the key to a productive garden. Let’s face it, most of us lead busy lives and don’t have time to consistently hand water our backyard veggie patch with the garden hose. Some gardeners are lucky enough to live where it rains regularly and don’t have to worry about watering.
Here in drought ridden So Cal, it rarely rains, so watering my garden is a huge issue for me. I have used drip irrigation in my garden for years – it saves me a ton of money, time and best of all, my garden gets the water it needs to produce lots of veggies.
Many gardeners are intimidated by the thought of installing a drip irrigation system. No need to be – drip irrigation is quick and easy to install, and very inexpensive. I started with DIG Drip Irrigation Kit years ago as a total newbie, have added to my system over the years as my garden expands.
I teamed up with DIG Corp for the installation of a container drip irrigation system for our Smart Pots garden for my “Growing your Fall Garden Series”. Watch “How to Install a Drip Irrigation System for Containers” as DIG expert, Stu, explains why it’s important to have a separate irrigation system for containers, and takes us step-by-step through the install of a ML50 Raised Bed Drip Irrigation Kit.
How to Install a Drip Irrigation System for Containers
After watching this video, you’ll know exactly what to do to install a drip irrigation system in your backyard!
Comment below: Are you’re using drip irrigation in your garden? What’s your favorite garden watering tip?
See you in the garden,
CaliKim
You can read more about me, follow me, view how-to videos, photos of my garden, and lots of growing tips and tricks, on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest
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Thanks for posting this. I cannot get the 2nd link for the video to work. “Site can’t be reached”
Hello Linda, glad you liked the post – hope it helps growing veggies a bit easier for you. Thx for letting me know about the link – it is now fixed!
Hey Kim,
I guess I don’t quite understand what happens with your hose. Does it just stay connected out in your yard? My hose would have boiling water coming out for the first few minutes. Or can you just hook it up when you need to?
I have 5 big boxes at the back of my back yard. I’m assuming you could have a piece for your spigot that would allow you to have 2 hoses running out of it, but on not sure I want a hose running through my lawn out to the boxes all day. Or am I missing something?
I hope I’m not the only one who is a little confused about this….
Hello Susan,
No problem, glad you asked. I have a splitter attached to my hose bib. One side of the splitter has a hose for my regular garden nozzle to hand water what I need to. I turn this side on and off manually as I need to. The other side of the splitter has a garden hose that runs down to my containers – I run this hose unobtrusively from my hose bib the side of my yard and down the hill to my container garden. This hose stays connected to the timer and drip irrigation system (make sure to watch the timer video too, https://youtu.be/y5O3tdD1yxA?list=PLH4z_9MDD00IQd-lDl6WBHJZ8dA78lIpa). The water is always turned on at this side of the splitter at the hose bib so it is available when the timer tells it to flow through the drip system. The drip irrigation timer controls the actual water flow through the drip irrigation system to my containers. The pressure regulator that you saw in the video regulates the water pressure coming into my drip system so I don’t have a blow out at the point where the hose and drip system connect. Does this make sense?
Hopefully you have a way to run your hose down to your raised beds so it is not running through the middle of your lawn. It does take a bit of doing, but once you dig into the project and start connecting the parts, it makes more sense. Let me know if you have any more questions.
Thanks Kim,
Yes, that makes sense. I’ll have to look into it for spring. Thanks for replying.
Also, really enjoying your little videos with you as Camera Girl. They work fine, and as usual, you give us concise and easy instructions. I like that you’re doing these in real time. Even though we’re in dramatically different time zones (I’m 5), my zucchini plant looked exactly like yours! Huge, falling out of the box and finally loaded with powdery mildew.
Thanks again…
Hi Susan,
Glad it made sense – please let me know if you try it and how it works out. Thanks for your support on the CaliKim Cam – learning how to work the camera is a bit challenging for me, but always good to be learning. It’s also fun to be a bit more casual in the garden, just showing folks what I am doing that day. Bummer about the PM, but lucky that it’s the end of the season and you made it through, like I did, with minimal problems! See ya!
I live in the Sierra foothills near Yosemite at about 3,000 feet. My garden is planted in raised boxes and I have a drip system running to them from a timer. Even though I have done this for several years and attached the drip a few years ago, I am still not sure how long to run the drip or how many emitters each plant should take. My emitters are the green 2. gph.
Thanks for your advise.
Hello, Shari! Sounds like you have set up a great irrigation system for your garden! Determining how long to run the drip and timer is such a unique challenge for each garden. It really depends on what you have planted, the conditions of the season that you are in (ie: hotter dryer weather would require increased drip, cooler wetter would require decreased) and the soil that you have. My recommendation would be to run your system on what you have it set on and then daily check your soil a few hours later by inserting your finger into the dirt up to the first knuckle. If the soil feels dry, increase the drip- if it feels soaking wet, decrease. If it feels comfortably damp, you probably have it set exactly where it needs to be. =) Good luck- keep me updated!
Thanks for your help. I will follow your advise and see what happens.
Hello Shari – Drip irrigation is a fantastic way to water your garden. It is key to keeping my garden producing and saves me a ton of time too! Let me know how it goes!
Thanks for sharing the video on how to install a drip irrigation system for containers. I agree this is very useful for when you’re living in dryer areas like you mentioned.