Design

Garden Layout

Optimism of a new land owner and a field researcher drove my choice of a strip design. I knew the well is rated at 7 gallons per minute and producing less than 3 gallons. Sprinklers use 3+ gallons per minute and when tested soon pumped the well dry. Drip irrigation was the only alternative. Many local farmers grew dry peas and sunflowers for seed production so half the garden could be without irrigation. The other half could be watered using a supplemental system I had seen published in Horticultural Science. The drip irrigation article used a central water tank feeding long drip lines in a wagon spoke design. Research was done at Oregon State University and I like the results. I decided to adapt the idea of a tank feeding the drip lines.

A 40 gallon plastic apple juice drum was purchased and stand built so drum was 4.5 feet above the ground. A half inch garden hose was attached and drip lines attached to the hose in 32 inch intervals. The tank was used for one year and found it really did not provide enough water pressure for the drip lines to work. Not sure how the researcher got the system to work for the article but mine failed to meet the standard of good.

The plastic barrel was turned into a compost hoop and stand relocated to hold a bird house. A hose timer was purchased to feed the drip line at a specific time of day and duration. Early years of gardening the strip were 8 feet wide and 100 feet long to allow the use of two 50 feet hoses for feeder line. In retirement the garden has shrunk to a 8 feet wide strip and 44 feet long. The spacing of the drip lines has also shrunk to 22 inches.