love for soaker hoses

Well when we had our housefire we had a totally cool irrigation system set up for all of our gardens with soaker hoses..all set up to y's so they could be turned off or on in sections..

well when we were going through home deconstruction after the house fire..they all got ripped up..and thrown "somewhere"..

Well I wanted to find some of them to put in the greenhouse the other day so i went on a search and i did find SOME of them..got the greenhouse done and loved just being able to flip the switch..so i also got the area around the greenhouse set up with a few soaker hoses..where the veggies are growing now.

i have this one area way way way way out back that is very difficult to reach with a hose for water..and we are in a drought now..with extreme flash fire danger..usually happens this time of year.

well i had one soaker hose left that i had found and went out and put it in and then my husand went on a search and he found all the other ones..mostly small pieces..but a lot of connectors so they could be put back together..and a lot had holes and tears in them..easy to cut out and reconnect as well.

so I spent all day yesterday reconnecting broken and torn soaker hoses to all of the rear back garden (45 x 45) ..didn't get "everything" under the soaker hoses but did get enough of it to hopefully save things through the drought..got the hazelnut pecan paw paw and chestnut trees as well as all the raspberry blueberry and blackberry plants..some of the taters, and a lot of the asparagus..a small bed of carrots and a few other things..

OK so i had a whole gob of pieces left and our front along the house is also difficult to water..so after a lunch break i went out and proceeded to put soaker hoses all along the entire front of the house from one end to the other..esp around my plum and peach trees and watered that for a couple hours.

when i came inside i was one huge gnat bite..the gnats are absolutely horrible here..i could barely breathe they would go in your nose and mouth.

we have never had gnats this bad in all the 38 years i have lived here..must be the long wet winter and the cold damp spring brought them on..usually you have to go to the UP to have gnat problems..hopefully they will disappear with the drought !!

at least now i can easily water a good part of our property..and save my baby trees..the older trees i dont' really worry about so much.

soaker hoses are so nice. I had trouble with mine though because I would turn it on and forget! with a regular sprinkler it was quite obvious that I was watering. with the soaker i would go out to the garden later and...."gee.....why is it so dang wet...oooops"

I get sidetracked easily. I think this year I am going to try the dripping bucket method for the trees.....

well i went to the store and bought 4 more 50' soaker hoses yesterday..as i had used all my salvaged hoses up..and got 3 hooked up here and one at my son's house (i hate going over there and seeing the flowers i planted wilting)

I wish soaker hoses would work here, but we have so much calcium in the water that they clog up in one season or less.  I've got to figure something else out besides the sprinkler -- it's a pain to have to move it around all the time, and the wind gets so bad sometimes that it blows the water away from where it's supposed to be going.  (I've seen the big field irrigation systems going with the wind blowing hard -- makes a pretty sight, but the field isn't getting watered!) 

Kathleen

there are generally plugs on the end of the soaker hose that can be removed to flush out the sediment..or you can take a larger poker (knitting needle??) and make a larger hole on the under sides..than is normally there

spent all day burying the solid hoses under the lawn and paths so that I don't have hoses on top of the ground to access my soaker hoses..i'm tired..i'm sore..but that is done.

hubby found another big tote full of soaker hoses and i found some more in a wood pile..(yeah not a hose pile)..so i think i might have located all of them that were tossed here and there when we had our housefire.


i'll find somewhere to use up all the soaker hoses..rather have them hooked to a hose and water, then thrown in a stinkin woodpile..but i'm on break now..sore and tired.

Alas, all the salvaged soakers hoses have been put to good use, now i'll not be wasting water at all..ever...anywhere..75 % of my planted gardens now have soaker hoses on them..some do but they are old and buried and not hooked up..maybe i'll get those someday..working..but for now..i have them all around the house..and down part of the fenceline..all around the drainfield garden and buried to the back nut berry etc garden..and they are on dozens of Y's and 2 hose bibbs for easy access..

the one i'll use most is the one in the greenhouse though..the others are for really dry weather..only...here if it can't make it without water after a year or two, it isn't worth planting..but this year i have so many baby trees and shrubs and plants in, the soaker hoses may save their live.

I did soaker hoses many, many years ago.  And then I explored different forms of drip (which I didn't like as much as the soaker hoses).  And then I remember doing a lot of research into processes that wick instead.  I think the last thing I looked into back then (1997 or so) was the idea of saving plastic tubs and burying them in raised beds.  As moisture came along, the tubs would fill and some small bit of water would be left in the tub.  Roots could get as little or as much as they wanted.  I was a little nervous about anaerobic things happening there.  In the end I never tried it.

Okay, back to soaker hoses.  What about replacing soaker hoses with hugelkultur? 

One of the down sides of a soaker hose is that your extra water is rinsing away soil nutrients.  And slowly converting your soil into dirt.    And then there is the expense and care of the soaker hoses and all of the other bits and bobs you need to get them to work well. 

Granted, a hugelkultur bed doesn't really sing until the second or third year - so for the first year it seems that soaker hose might be good.  But I think I would still like heavy mulching and some hand watering better.

But, as always, that's just me.  There's more than one way to skin a cat.

For once in my life I got smart while building my log cabin home.  I had the plumber put an on/off valve to the exterior faucet underneath my kitchen sink.  Last spring, after the garden was built in front of the cabin, I added the soaker hoses to it and connected them to the faucet.  I was able to water my 12' x 36' garden simply by flipping a switch in my kitchen.  It worked like a charm.