Thursday, May 3, 2012

One Plumbing Drip that's Good for the Garden



Trust me, when I say, lately I've had my share of plumbing leaks in my house. I just had my kitchen facet, half bath sink facet and toilet guts replaced. A drip doesn't take long to develop into a flood, but a drip in the garden can be a good thing! This year we are trying soaker or drip hoses to water plants in the garden. So, far we have bought six hoses at local dollar stores for eight bucks a piece for a total of $48.00.


At first we had four hoses and Deberah found this connector at a building supply/garden center. It connected the four hoses and as you can see to use one garden hose to supply water to the four soaker hoses. The connector cost, approximately, $16.00 bringing our total cost to $64.00.



These hoses are fifty feet each and as seen above, placed around the crown of the plant, then drip, drip and drip some more. This feeds the water onto the roots, keeping fungus and mold from growing onto stems and leaves. Also, these hoses save water and don't water weeds that spring up in the middle rows saving time tilling and pulling weeds.



Today I found a two hose connector($10.00) that will allow another garden hose to be added to the water supply. Four more drip hoses can be added depending on the footage needed to cover the garden rows. But for now, we only need a two hose connector for the soaker hoses that we also bought at the dollar store for $2.00. This makes for a grand total of $76.00 to install a drip irrigation system of 300 feet in our garden.



As mentioned in a previous blog, "No Tilling -- No Kidding", we took the advice of Master Gardener, Mike Cunningham who owns "Country Garden Farms" to utilize drip irrigation in our garden to save time and money in the long run. The tomato plant seen already seems to be benefiting, but I'll keep
you informed on the next garden update......until then

Happy Gardening 2012!

Posted by Wilma Smith

4 comments:

  1. Nice post to share with us. Thanks for it. We are Plumbers Brisbane, offering our services more than 7 years to our client.

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  2. There’s always a good side to every situation. :) Good thing the water from your plumbing leaks would still be used productively. However, in maintaining and preventing plumbing leaks there are helpful ways to take into consideration. Reducing the water pressure would help lessen the stress upon the water pipes. In that way, the life of your plumbing would not drastically decrease. Also, softening the water could contribute from reducing stress on your water pipes. Water with high mineral content could shorten your plumbing’s lifespan, but would help to have it softened by installing a sodium-based softener.

    Darryl Iorio

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  3. Thank you so much for your input! We found that you are exactly right. Also, the drip hoses need to be up to a certain standard...thanks again!

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  4. Ken’s other grandfather worked as a manager at the Schenectady plant of the American Locomotive Company. Smith was a life member of the Capital District Railroad Club of Schenectady. He was also a member of the Mohawk-Hudson Chapter Railway Historical Society and its parent organization, the National Railway Historical Society. Submit Articles

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