- In today's video, we're going to be talking
about how I water my garden
because I'm about to redo that whole process.
But before I do, I wanna talk about some
of the methods I've developed before I decided to change it
and why I'm changing those methods in this video.
(water sprays)
This part of my garden has been kind of relegated
to a container zone and a lot of these containers are
some trees or bushes that I've been wanting to pot off
and keep growing before I find their final spot.
Some of them are things like herbs
that I don't have anywhere else to put like this lemongrass,
a couple different mints and actually pay homage
to this area right here, is I have a thornless blackberry
in a container, not in the ground.
So that's what my plan is moving forward.
But the point here is that I have a lot of containers.
The only way to water them right now is to come
through and water each one with a hose.
But now that I have so many containers, the right thing
to do is to actually pull a new line of drip right
all along here and drop a sprinkler
into each one of these pots.
So the hose is working.
But over the years there's been so many new pots
that it's now sucking up hours
of my week and I need to get this on drip.
So that's gonna be what's coming here in a future video.
Over here on this part of the garden, I have the way I'm
actually irrigating this garden
and that is a main drip line coming out to the fence
and then a quick connect from the hose link.
So what I'm gonna do here is I'm going to take this hose
off right here and twist it on.
In the past I've used those brass quick connects
and the problem I've had with those is that,
first of all, I really like this toggle here.
Second of all, the brass ones tend to get a mineral buildup
and then they start decaying over time very rapidly
especially with our hard water here.
So I'm gonna go ahead, turn this on and I'm gonna show you
how it works and why I wanna change it.
What you'll see right here is
that I have a few different drip lines on these two beds
and what's happening is that where I connected that hose
which is right over there, there is now a main line
that circles all the way around the garden
and from that I'm tapping in other lines.
So I have a line coming from that main line over there
that runs through here right on the garden ground
and that splits off into irrigating these two beds.
So you'll see right here that it's dripping
and that's how I'm watering this side of the garden.
The problem is I don't have any drip on that entire section,
including the raised bed, including behind it
and into the asparagus patch.
And the real reason that's an issue is
that you might have noticed that there was brick all
along that pathway, and I just can't get the PVC in here.
Now, I did come up with a solution and in this future video
where I redo all my irrigation, I will be bringing PVC
in here and redoing all of this drip irrigation
so I could get better water because every time I put drip
on a new section of the garden, the plants just do
so much better that it makes me frustrated
I didn't do it earlier.
So let's go take a look at the other side
of the garden and how I'm watering it currently as is.
So we're over here in the north garden
where I have my sort of manifold, so to speak.
This is how I water this entire side of the garden.
So the way it works is
that I have a half inch PVC pipe coming up that goes
to a normal hose bibs spigot and then that splits off
into this four-way manifold.
The things that I have on there right now is A, I have
the hose link connection here.
That's what where the water comes for the hose.
And then on this side I have a backflow preventer,
a pressure regulator, and then I have a quick connect
and that's how I actually connect my drip irrigation.
The reason why I use this quick connect here is
that it allows me to swap in my fertigation device
that lets me fertilize while I irrigate.
Now the thing about this system is
that it's just not working that well. (laughs)
So first of all, it's prone to leaks.
There's a lot of stress here on this.
I just had to re plumb this
'cause this actually snapped at the threads.
And the other thing about it is
that it's not delivering water consistently
across my whole garden.
I think I overdid how much connection I have
to this one output.
And now what's happening is
that it's doing incomplete watering.
So the solution to this is I'm gonna be keeping this riser
and the actual hose bib, and I'll probably
still leave this four way manifold just
to have different options.
But what I will be doing is
actually a full out irrigation installation.
So I'm going to be getting a controller
that's weather sensitive
and I'm going to be building seven different zones
with valves and wiring and all that.
I'm actually gonna record the entire process
from teeing off water from the water main from the street,
pulling the pipe in, attaching it to the controller,
building the valves, and installing irrigation.
I wanted to do this complete look at it
and talk about why it's such a good idea to do,
especially in California.
San Diego's the last county to be
without water restrictions, but I know it's coming
and having a proper irrigation controller is gonna make
such a big difference.
It could change the watering based on the weather,
you could control it remotely.
You could look for leaks.
How much water are you using?
There's just so many benefits
that I will definitely be explaining more as I install that.
But for now, this is watering my drip
which is all the beds that you see.
This is connected to the hose
which is how I water everything else.
And the only thing that's gonna stay is the hose itself.
So in the future video we will be doing
a multi-part irrigation install.
So that drip line that we just took a look
at that I connected to the easy flow fertilizer injector is
actually the thing that supplies this whole garden
which is kind of ridiculous
'cause this is a huge space to all be connected
off of one half inch line.
So that's kind of a major issue.
I don't have enough water pressure, enough water,
like literally enough water
in the pipes to water this whole section of my garden.
But currently I still have it connected
to at least this bed here, the bed next to it
and this pollinator patch.
But what you'll see is that the same as
before, I have the drip lines buried underground.
So they go underneath my pathway here, pop back up.
And in order to get around the lack of water pressure,
what I've had to do is actually use
these little shutoff valves here.
So I have one that I could control to shut
off everything to the left of that valve.
And then over here, inside each bed I actually have
a shutoff valve as well.
So this does work if you are pressure limited
and you want to start cycling different zones
but it's extremely manual because
if you're not there turning those valves yourself,
nobody else is gonna do it for you.
So that's why I want to get a timer that's wifi controlled
that has four separate zones
so I could actually water four different parts
of my garden at different time periods
without sacrificing that water pressure.
So that's the main plan here.
I'm basically going to be probably ripping out all
of his drip tubing 'cause it's now four or five years old.
And a lot of it is actually upcycled
from Steve who gave me some of his old drip tubing.
And that's the plan here, full overhaul with timers,
with four zones, but not on an electrical system.
So I think you guys will be really excited to see that
because it's very approachable
and doable for anyone at home.
So let's talk about a couple different things I'm
actually going to be keeping for watering my garden
and one of those is actually this Olla
and actually I'll probably be adding more Ollas
to my garden.
An Olla is just a clay vessel that
when buried underground will naturally passively diffuse
water out and water your garden
in a certain radius around it.
In this case, this is a big one that could water anything
up to a three foot diameter.
So this bed is three feet, it's perfect because I'm
on a driveway here, I don't have any irrigation here
and it's kind of off my beaten path.
So I always forget to water this bed.
So when I planted this lettuce out, I decided the only way
this makes sense is if I actually put this Olla
in the ground 'cause now all I have to do is check it
and once a week just refill it
with water and I don't have to do anything else.
So that's a great actual irrigation system
that doesn't require any power,
doesn't require anything special, all you need
to do is dig a hole, shove it in there,
fill it with water and you're done.
So that's definitely a keeper
but let's go take a look at a couple other keepers.
One of the things
that I just don't see going away is a sprinkler.
So sprinklers are a little bit
on the inefficient side in terms of water conservation
but the thing that's really great
about them is when you want a new area
to get fully saturated with water before you direct seed
or you just need to get a lot more water to it
for a specific reason.
So sprinklers, I'll always keep around
but what I like to do is similar to my irrigation systems,
is I always run them off of quick connects.
So it makes it really convenient to go anywhere
in the garden, pull my hose link out
and just attach it on.
And the nice thing
about this one is it has multiple patterns.
In this case it's on a square setting,
so I could just plop it down right over here
and if I turn it on, I'll get this whole patch of straw
that's actually my no-till bed where I'm going
to be putting melons and pumpkins fully watered in.
So let's see if I could turn this
on without getting myself too wet.
(sprinkler sprays)
So there's an example of it running on a low setting
but this is great for hydrating this area
before I plant in some pumpkins or melons.
The third item that I'm always going to be keeping no matter
what is this trusty metal watering can.
When it dies, I will definitely replace it.
But the thing I really like about watering cans is
that when I need to do targeted fertilizing.
In this case I have some Agro Thrive Fruit
and Flour Mix in here.
It's really easy to mix up a nice batch
of fertilizer, go to all my containers and make sure
that each plant is actually getting some in there.
If I used the fertilizer injector,
I will be definitely getting some of that fertilizer in
but this way I'm guaranteeing that I know
that each plant is actually getting it.
So the watering can is here to stay.
And obviously for situations
where you don't wanna pull the whole hose out,
it's fantastic to just fill up, walk over
and water whatever you want.
And those are the kind of the major things
that I wanted to talk about in this video.
There are a couple other things
that I probably should change, but I will be talking
about in a future video.
So in this future video, I'm actually going
to be doing this comprehensive installation guide
for putting in this new irrigation system.
So I'd love to hear your guys' questions
or things you want me to cover in this future video
but I think you guys are really going to appreciate it
because I'm going to make it very approachable
and easy for anyone to install in their garden.
So that's how I water my garden as it is right now.
We talked about some of those problems and some
of the solutions that will be forthcoming soon
in the video where I'm gonna show you guys exactly
how to get irrigation installed in your garden.
So please leave some questions below.
Thanks for watching though
and I'll see you guys in the future.