Irrigation for our Modular Veggie Garden
Text: about a 1 minute read. Lots of pictures.
Recently we set up a modular veggie garden using cut in half barrels. We suspended veggie netting over it using a framework made from mulberry branches.
This very brief article shares some pics of how we've set up irrigation for our modular garden.
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Irrigation for our barrel garden
This (above) is a picture of the yellow thingy I used to poke holes in the irrigation pipe for the nozzles. You can see one of the nozzles to the left of the yellow thingy, and another above it.
Below them in the red tub, you see some little plugs for plugging up holes in the irrigation pipe. Those are for when I put the hole on the wrong angle so most of the water sprays gaily over the edge of the barrel onto the ground outside the barrel…
... or is prevented from doing so by a strategically placed kale leaf...
Below, you can see that the ends of the irrigation pipe are secured to the picket at the end of the row that also secures the overhead wire. It's suspended above the row of barrels from the overhead wire.
You can also see that the mulberry branches came in handy for pulling the pipe to this side or that, to keep it centered over the barrels which are not at all in a straight line in spite of our best efforts when we set them up.
I haven't trimmed the baling twine to make it look neat, because I'm anticipating the possibility of needing to make adjustments. And also because neatness is never my forte and only occurs to me after I've downloaded the pics...
Here (below) is a close up of one of the artful baling twine arrangements used to keep the pipe where we wanted it. Ish. What would we do without baling twine?
Coming up next ...
Next week, I'll tell you about some of the ways we're using and preserving the basket loads of leafy greens that just keep coming from our modular veggie garden.
Please leave a comment below
Here in the tropics, we need to grow our European veggies in the cool months, and we need irrigation and shade cloth for when the cool months aren't super cool. What's happening irrigation-wise where you live?
Do you just have the one sprinkler per barrel? How wide is the spray…..? I guess that even if it doesn’t spray the entire barrel, it will seep into the soil below for the roots to drink from. I am on the hunt for some barrels now 🙂
Hi Carol, yes, one sprinkler per barrel. These (I think they might be called mushroom sprinklers?) are adjustable so you can wind them tighter for a smaller spray or looser for a wider spray – up to a point and depending on water pressure. If I get them in straight, they do water the barrel well. But some went in on an angle and that doesn’t work – half the barrel stays dry.
Did you remember to turn off the tap? 🙂