Since our school garden is attempting the square-foot gardening method, we need an extra row instead of the three we have now. Our drip irrigation kit only came with 7 three-way links to connect the soaker hoses, which is why we could only make three rows. How did we solve the problem? We had to improvise a way to make one soaker hose cover as much area as two.
This is the original setup, with only three rows of soaker hoses and a large gap in the middle that’s much larger than one foot:
We decided to shorten the row on the left side, and run a longer hose through the middle, slinking it from side to side to cover the desired area. We kept it in place using stakes. This is how the hose setup looks now:
Now we needed to run a test to make sure the soaker hose setup works without any kinks—pun intended! The reason it’s called a soaker hose is because water soaks the hose and exits through its pores in the form of small droplets. This is perfect for drip irrigation and ensures we really make the most out of every drop of water. Take a look for yourself and see how it works!
It worked wonderfully! Now all that’s left is to ensure that the end of the garden closest to the water source is higher than the other end. Why do we care about inclines and declines? Because gravity makes water run downhill, and our rain barrel irrigation system works solely off of gravity. We’ll keep you posted on how we accomplish this next task.
Humanity is family. Thank you and God bless.