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June 5, 2023

The Easiest Drip Irrigation Setup For Beginners

I can’t believe how long I procrastinated on installing drip irrigation — when it wound up being so quick & easy! I wasted so many hours water, but no more. Today, I’m breaking down this drip irrigation setup for beginners. This is the basic setup that we are using, and it’s working wonderfully. I have so much more spare time now that I’m not watering with a garden hose. I can’t sing this system’s praises enough! This post contains affiliate links which may lead to a commission if purchased. Thanks for your support!

Drip Irrigation Setup For Beginners

Here are the main, step-by-step components for getting automatic drip irrigation from your house to your plants. We’ll go over the other tools after going over the drip irrigation setup for beginners system basics, here. This post contains affiliate links which may lead to a commission if purchased. Thanks for your support!

1. Hose Bib

For the sake of simplicity, we’re going to assume that the hose bib is already in place. (This is what comes off the house, and what you’d be hooking your garden hose up to to water every day.)

2. Hose Splitter

Don’t be like me, and waste a ton of time switching hoses/drip system back and forth. Get a hose splitter right away, so that you can just turn a valve or two if you need to turn water on/off to a particular destination. I recommend getting a 4-way splitter right away. Ours is hooked up to the drip system, the sod sprinkler, and the garden hose, with one open in case we want to add a separate drip system, etc.. However, you can also get a 2-way splitter like this.

3. Digital Hose Timer

While not technically required for a drip system, we really recommend having a digital hose timer. Humans are forgetful (at least I am), but this timer is not. I like to have it set to go off around 4am, before the water in the tube gets hot from the sun. This is key to healthy plants and watering. I don’t want to be waking up to do it at that time, so I’m very grateful this digital hose timer reliably makes it happen.

4. Faucet Connection Kit

Many drip irrigation videos have lots of little pieces that need to be fit together. For beginners, this piece is much easier. This is what will hook up directly to the drip tubing. It has pressure regulation, a filter, etc.. It combines a ton of small tinker-y bits into one, so that you don’t have to worry about fitting together more pieces. It went on our system in about 10 seconds, and has been working great.

5. Distribution Tubing

Distribution tubing is the tubing that will take the water to each “garden area”, but not directly to the plant. I like to think of it as the “highway” for the water. This is where the water speeds out (especially far away in our case, because our garden is 150 ft from our house) before taking one of the exit ramps to go to a more specific location. We have the 1/2″ tubing, which keeps great pressure all the way out to the garden.

5. Tape Swivel

I think of the tape swivel as the “exit ramp” for the water. The tape swivels will allow the water to split off from the distribution tubing (or the “highway”) and enter the drip tape. One side punches right into the distribution tubing, and the other side is what the drip tape hooks up to.

 6. Drip Tape

The drip tape is where the water will exit the tubing, and go right to the base of your plants. Continuing with the travel analogy, I think of drip tape as the “neighborhood roads” to the plants’ houses. This drip tape already has many holes at a constant interval to keep beds & rows watered consistently. However, if you want to poke holes yourself for specific plant locations and keep water off in between, you can use spot emitters on distribution tubing instead.

7. Row End

Now that we’ve sent water to all the plants that need it, it’s time to add a row end, or a “dead end”. This just caps off the tubing where you no longer need it to continue. Make sure you get an end piece for both the drip tape and the distribution tubing. (They’re different.)

Drip tape row end.

Fine Tuning Drip Irrigation Setup For Beginners

Now that we’ve gone over the basics of the drip irrigation setup for beginners, let’s fine-tune things a bit. Here are a few tools that will help fine-tune your drip irrigation setup for beginners, and keep things nice and tidy.

Hole Punch/Fitting Tool

This is the tool we use to punch the hole in the distribution tubing to allow connection to the drip tape.

Barbed Valve

A barbed valve can allow you to turn on/off water to specific destinations, without turning on/off the whole system. We use these barbed valves around certain plants that have more or less watering requirements than other plants. For example, we need to cut off water to the watermelon patch a few weeks before harvest to keep them nice and sweet. This way, we can just turn a valve and allow the rest of the system to run as usual.

Fittings

The fittings will connect tubing (or “roadways”) to each other. While there are many different kinds, here are a few that we have in our system. Once you know how a few work, it’s easier to understand how the rest work, too.

Tee Fitting

The tee fitting allows a split off the main distribution tubing while allowing it continue. We use this coupling along the many rows of our garden beds.

Elbow Fitting

The elbow fitting will allow for the tubing to split at a 90 degree angle.

Coupling Fitting

A coupling fitting will allow you to hook up two end pieces of tubing together, to continue in the same direction.

There are many more types of fittings available. These are just a few that we used in our system, but make sure to check out more types of fittings to see what will create the most polished drip irrigation system for your needs.

That’s it! I know it can feel like a lot when you’re looking at foreign tools (and a whole lot of them), but you’d be amazed how fast it all starts to click, especially if you just take it one step at a time.

We’re not gardening experts, so we always recommend listening to the pros for the best advice. This post contains affiliate links which may lead to a commission if purchased. Thanks for your support!

Posted In: Blog & Tutorials, Homesteading · Tagged: automatic plant waterers, digital hose timer, drip irrigation setup for beginners, drip tubing vs tape, easy vegetable garden tricks, how to water the garden, low maintenance landscaping, pieces for drip water systems

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