Zach Nelson

Thanks Leila,

Yeah I think i'm leaning more towards just having a couple hose hookups scattered about, but using a drip line for the trellised crops. Is there any reason you recommend soaker hoses over drip lines?

Oh ya we have no lack of organic matter around here Plus I also bought a few pounds of different green manures.

And speaking of mulch and organic matter, we have like 5 or 6 pine tree's that are going to be coming down this summer. Does anyone know if pine makes for a decent mulch?
Some people say it adds acidity to the soil and some people say that's an old wives tale. But does anyone have any substantial proof one way or the other?

Hey Justin,

The soil here can be slightly heavy in clay in certain spots, but overall its a pretty balanced soil for never having been cared for. All the drainage tests i've done have come back very positive. As for the climate I live in zone 5, so we get some decently hot and humid summers. Do you have much experience with running drip lines? Especially on a slightly larger scale then your average home gardener? We're growing quite a lot of tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, squash, and beans and all of which i've been wanting to grow vertically if I can.

And yeah I started a couple compost piles last year so they might be ready for this season, I get horse manure from the guy down the road. But ive been bouncing back and forth whether I should cut the sod out leaving the grass in place for the aisles or if i should go with mulch. Hmmm, so many possibilities...

Any recommendations on equipment would be great though, especially in reguards to the drip irrigation. And we get our water from a well.

So I just fell upon just over an acre of land that I am planning on turning into a highly intensive production vegetable/herb garden. And I started thinking about how best to irrigate this area. I plan on building a twine t-trellis system to trellis up my tomatoes, peppers, beans etc. and considered running drip line for that area of the garden, but didn't know if it was practical for the amount of space I have.

I also didn't know if it would be necessary to run sprinklers throughout the main area of the garden, or if i could get away with just running a few different hoses.

I can supply pictures of the area and drawn plans for the setup, or any details you need to know.

Thanks!