Watering the garden design part 1

Well watering the garden became a decided challenge when keeping our water footprint in mind. We could have gone the easy and cheeper route, placing an oscillating sprinkler in the middle of the garden. But watering the rows of dirt didn't seem all that earth friendly since water is a hugely threatened natural resource. The plan we decided on was to convert our lawn sprinkler system into garden friendly adaptability. Basically we wanted to be able to attach soaker hoses to every one of the raised beds, but our hose outlets on the side of the house were WAY to far from the garden... what to do? Got it, replace the sprinkler heads with outside faucets, connect hoses, then soaker hoses and still be able to use the sprinkler timer for everything.

Part one: Sprinkler head conversion in pictures.

Dig out the sprinkler head.



Apply teflon tape to a double ended riser this one is 3/4" round and 12" long. Purchased at Home Depot in the sprinkler plumbing section.




Attach a double threaded coupling, this is so you can attach the riser to the sprinkler tube buried in the ground. I'll have to ask Jake what size it is, I can't remember and he is my "extreme engineer!"

Update: he says it's also 3/4 inch.
Attach a single or double or however many faucet heads you want, to the other end of the riser.

Voila!


Now add some teflon tape to the threads on the end of the sprinkler tube, not a good angle for picture taking sorry about that.

Attach the riser and all fun pieces to the sprinkler tubing.

Now we cut a 2x4 to attach this tubing to. You don't have to, but we have a dog... and I know this would get run into and busted... water everywhere.... drama... drama... and wet dog smell. We used a simple flexible metal strapping? I think it's found in the H/Vac ductwork section, we've had this roll of stuff for so long that I forget where found it. 

Attached with drywall screws. I know they will rust and stuff but most likely the metal strapping will too so in the long run we will have to come up with something better, but for now what we had on hand works.

Don't forget to turn on the sprinkler system and check for leaks before you bury everything, also turn the faucet head and double check that you get water coming out. If all is good...

TA DA! We installed 4 of these sprinkler head replacements, however there are 2 more sprinklers in the sprinkler zone that we have to cap off. Not sure how we are planing to do that but when we do I will post about it. After that, is the next stage in planing, that being the elaborate network of hoses and soaker hoses... stay tuned.