Despite the title this is mainly a 'plumbing' question...

I'm trying to put together a low-cost simple garden watering system
that I can bury a couple of inches under the soil. Gardena and
Hozelock both do watering systems, but the delicate drippers and
sprayers are prone to blocking, are fiddly to set-up and have to be
above ground where they would be vulnerable to attack by my rotary
mower. They're also fairly expensive. I'd prefer to lash-up a home
built system using 15mm and 22mm plastic pipe to feed lengths of
'soaker' hose, all of which could be safely buried out of harms way.

Has anyone already done this? Would you recommend Hep2O for shallow
burial, or would I need to use the blue (MDPE?) pipe instead. Has
anyone found a plumbing connector that would be suitable for joining 15
or 22mm plastic pipe to short lengths of 'soaker' hose? I haven't
bought any samples for testing yet, but soaker hose *might* be the
right sort of size to jam over 15mm pipe. Alternatively, maybe it will
accept one of those reinforcing inserts and fit a Speefit or Hep2O
connector :-) Either way, I'm reluctant to use something like
jubilee clips because they'll rust away very quickly. To get round the
problems of freezing in winter, I'd probably blow air through the
system at the end of the season to push most of the water out.

Anyone had a go at this?

Mike

The message .com
from contains these words:

Has anyone already done this?

Yes. I did it for my Mum some years ago. Leaky hose where needed, joined
with ordinary hosepipe where not. For specific spot waterers, used
microtube just pushed into the leaky hose, with another bit crossways on
the end. It even filled the birdbath under the pear tree and did the
hanging baskets.

A word of caution though - try to plan the layout as a series of radial
circuits rather than daisychain style, otherwise the pressure drop at
the far end will get the better of you. If need be, use a larger bore to
distribute to soakers where needed.

--
Skipweasel
Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.

In uk.d-i-y, wrote:
Despite the title this is mainly a 'plumbing' question...

I'm trying to put together a low-cost simple garden watering system
that I can bury a couple of inches under the soil. Gardena and
Hozelock both do watering systems, but the delicate drippers and
sprayers are prone to blocking, are fiddly to set-up and have to be
above ground where they would be vulnerable to attack by my rotary
mower. They're also fairly expensive. I'd prefer to lash-up a home
built system using 15mm and 22mm plastic pipe to feed lengths of
'soaker' hose, all of which could be safely buried out of harms way.

Has anyone already done this?

Yes, but only as a temporary (three years) measure while plants were
getting established in a new bed.

Would you recommend Hep2O for shallow
burial, or would I need to use the blue (MDPE?) pipe instead.

I used ordinary green hose pipe, and as I wasn't overly bothered about
appearance a lot of it ended up on the surface.

Has
anyone found a plumbing connector that would be suitable for joining 15
or 22mm plastic pipe to short lengths of 'soaker' hose?

With ordinary hose I used plastic push-fit connectors of the sort used
in those expensive Hoselock/Gardena systems you mentioned earlier.

I haven't
bought any samples for testing yet, but soaker hose *might* be the
right sort of size to jam over 15mm pipe. Alternatively, maybe it will
accept one of those reinforcing inserts and fit a Speefit or Hep2O
connector :-) Either way, I'm reluctant to use something like
jubilee clips because they'll rust away very quickly.

I used stainless jubilee clips, which survived just fine.

To get round the
problems of freezing in winter, I'd probably blow air through the
system at the end of the season to push most of the water out.

I didn't bother flushing for winter and the system came to no harm. It
was all flexible enough to cope.

Soaker hoses need good pressure, and with a large area to cover, I found
it necessary to run several systems each with their own timer,
programmed to come on at different times of day.

--
Mike Barnes

"Mike Barnes" wrote in message

To get round the
problems of freezing in winter, I'd probably blow air through the
system at the end of the season to push most of the water out.

I didn't bother flushing for winter and the system came to no harm. It
was all flexible enough to cope.

Ours has been in for four (I think, could be longer) years and we've never
done anything to prevent freezing - in Yorkshire.

Soaker hoses need good pressure, and with a large area to cover, I found
it necessary to run several systems each with their own timer,
programmed to come on at different times of day.

We;;ve found that our soaker hose works well by being fed only from a water
butt, which is about a foot higher than the lowest point of the soaker hose
(in the greenhouse). It's worked perfectly and has been a boon.

Everything really does depend, I suspect, on the area which will be
demanding watering but a well thought out system will be a godsend.

Mary

--
Mike Barnes

wrote in message
oups.com...

snip
Anyone had a go at this?

We've got a complete garden watering system comprising normal green garden
hose which I have punctured with a stanley knofe point buried in the ground
joined to the porous seep hose for the sections where more constant watering
is required. Use the cheap hozelock rip off conncetors for the hardware
stores - £0.50 each vs about 4 quid for Hozelock.

Been in the ground 5 years - works a treat!

Cheers
Dan.