In theory I completely understand that a
pond up high on your property can be used to irrigate things farther down the slope. In practice I have a large veggie garden that I occasionally need to
water (automatically when I'm not home). It's relatively flat but probably loses a foot of elevation across the garden. It's 120' by 60'.
From the garden the ground slopes upward to the high point of the property which is only 5' higher. If I dig out a
pond and push up a dam I could probably get water to be 4' higher than the garden. I think that would give me under 2psi of water pressure at the garden.
Is there any drip irrigation that can operate under 2psi? I have 27 raised beds that are all 25' long so distribution among the beds is a challenge.
I could always pump the water out of the pond at higher pressure. But then I might as well put the pond lower on the landscape to catch more runoff.
I do have sandy soil so even getting a pond to hold water may not be worth the trouble. I have a shallowish water table so I could do a windmill to bring up water. I'd still have the low pressure issue though.
Any thoughts out there? Does anyone distribute irrigation water to planting beds with low pressure and in an automated manner?
Options I've thought about:
Run a hose and hand water the garden - works fine except if I'm not there during a dry spell
Have a windmill fill the pond (to overcome leakage and water usage during dry spells) and pump water from pond through sprinklers on a timer
Improve soil so that watering isn't needed - in the works
Mulch - already doing but the soil is quite sandy in my area