How Do You Water A Big Garden?

[baymule]

I think most of ya'll know we are moving from a tiny city lot to 8 acres of HUGENESS! And if you didn't, now you do. I will go from having a garden in the narrow strip between my driveway and sidewalk, cut into beds by brick pathways, to ANYWHERE I WANT TO! AND ANY SIZE I WANT!!!

I have always spent lots of time watering my fractured garden. I couldn't use a sprinkler, most of the water would be wasted. I couldn't set up an automatic system, everything was too irregular. So now I will be able to have a big garden....aw heck.....make it TWO big gardens! And I want to set it up so I am not out there with a water hose 17 hours a day. I know nothing about watering systems. So do any of you have watering systems set up for your garden and what is the most efficient, water saving-but water delivering to thirsty plants, way for me to go about this? I will also be planting fruit trees, berries, grapes, and whatever else my little heart desires.

My DH has bought me a Kubota 2320, 4WD, complete with a canopy, bush hog, disc, box blade with scarifiers, front end loader with attaching forks, and a trailer to load it up on with a nice diamond plate aluminum tool box across the front of the trailer. I am dying to get my grubby little hands on it! It is still parked at the people's house we bought it from-dear friends of ours. they lost their deer lease and decided to sell it. It only has 50 hours on it! So I will be able to disc up a good area for the garden! Plus have all kinds of fun with it!

I just HAD to get a pic of my tractor in here! Anyway, back to watering the garden--what are some ideas? The soil is sandy. Like beach sand without the ocean. I know I will have to add lots of humus, but I am blessed with trees (leaves) and we have chickens and horses for the manure, so it will take some work and time, but it can be accomplished.

Should I use soaker hose or the drip tape or what else is there that I don't know about? I have all winter to get this going and I want to be ready for spring planting. I want to get it right the first time, so I don't waste a lot of time and money "learning from my many mistakes" I know I will make mistakes, but with the help of my TEG family, maybe we can keep it down to a few boo-boos.

 

[Carol Dee]

Talk about ENVY! My DH wants your tractor set up.... bad.
Be careful what you wish for. We wanted a big garden, but the darn thing keeps getting bigger each year. Not having a water source close we have rain barrels set to catch the water run off from the shed. That has a spigot for a hose (currently 2 LONG hoses that do not reach the gardens to the front of the lot.) We had barrowed a spray tank on wheels and would fill that to pull around and water. But had to return it. So we will be adding more hose. In TX I'd imagine a sprinkler would be a waste of water. I like the idea of a soaker. I love my raised beds. They are set just wide enough to run the garden tractor between. And a 3 feet wide can easily be weeded from both side and reach the middle without having to walk in the beds. Have FUN with your new space and NEW TRACTOR

 

[thistlebloom]

Who cares about watering!!! I want your tractor!

Geez, some girls are so spoiled!

 

[Carol Dee]

What Thistle said.

 

[bobm]

Since you have sandy ,soil ... In the southern part of the San Juaquin Valley of Cal. , where they have umpteen thousand acres of sandy soil, drip irrigation is used on the commercial orchards and vineyards. Overhead sprinklers are used for row crops, and alfalfa fields. In Cal.,Nevada, Arizona. Eastern Oregon, Eastern Washington... when flies over the desert areas , one sees circular fields of alfalfa to accomodate overhead sprinkler irrigation. I used a bigger brother to your Kubota with a brush hog to mow my pastures. I used a rototiller on the Kubota to prep the garden area in the spring, then to chop up the spent garden plants in the fall to ready the area for fall/ winter crop. Since my soil was a mixture of sand and clay with a hardpan below the soil surpace, I made narrow rows in the garden to flood irrigate between the row crops. I used individual drip irrigation for all trees, bushes and micro holed soaker hose ( emits one drop long it's leangth at a time like sweating) for the flower beds.

 

[Smart Red]

Blah, blah, blah. . . . My DH has bought me a Kubota 2320, 4WD, complete with a canopy, bush hog, disc, box blade with scarifiers, front end loader with attaching forks, and a trailer to load it up on with a nice diamond plate aluminum tool box across the front of the trailer. . . . blah, blah, blah.

Talk about ENVY! My DH wants your tractor set up.... bad. Have FUN with your new space and NEW TRACTOR

OMG! The answer to my dreams! I am nearly to the point of sneaking out and getting something just like yourKubotaand phooh on DH. I need a few friends like yours! Sigh!

IMHO, there is nothing more water-saving and workable than drip irrigation. I've never tried it except in my raised beds, but the way I do it is to lay the hoses and set a hose hook-up just to the edge of the bed. Cover well with mulch. That is the most important water-saving tip I can offer.

That way I can water one bed with one house-hose and later move the house-hose to another bed since I don't have an in ground watering system. For me in south-est, central-est Wisconsin, that usually means I don't have to water but once a week -- less if it rains -- and I can do one part of the garden on one day and another the next day without having a lot of hoses to move.

There are raised waterers that can water pretty large garden spaces (and the paths between) at a time, but need to be moved from area to area (unless you have more than one) that I always found to be a muddy mess.

 

[ninnymary]

Glad you posted a picture. I had a hard time visulizing what you had described. That toy looks shiny and new! Lucky you.

Mary

 

[thistlebloom]

Bay, my brother has a Kubota also. I don't know which model, but he uses it a lot for everything from spraying, to weed mowing to hay making and road work. It's a tough little beast!

I got to have it in my driveway for about 6 weeks while they were looking for a place to buy.
And no, he didn't leave the keys in it.

 

[Nyboy]

I hope you found a very good way to thank your hubby wink wink.

 

[Nyboy]

Don't you have a mule, thats a much greener way to go. Tractors are loud, smelly, gas guzzlers. I can take it off your hands.