If you have a large garden, you don't want to keep running back and forth with the watering can. Fortunately, you can build a practical irrigation system yourself with little effort - all you need is a water butt and a standard garden hose. Thanks to the resulting drip irrigation, the beds are always well supplied with useful and ornamental plants, even during short absences.

Thanks to gravity, drip irrigation can also be implemented without a pump

Gravity replaces the pump

Many commercially available systems work with small submersible pumps, since the water from the tank does not reach the vegetable patch without pressure. However, if there is no power connection in the garden, such pumps cannot work - and solar-powered specimens are extremely unreliable, as they only pump when the sun is shining. Instead, you can also make use of gravity, which transports the water to the beds all by itself. How it works? Very simple: You only have to bring the water tank, in this case the rain barrel, to a higher level than the beds. So that the pressure is sufficient for irrigation, you should lift the barrel onto a platform between 50 and 100 centimeters high.

How to build a drip irrigation system yourself

For the self-built irrigation system, it is best to choose a larger water butt with a capacity of at least 1000 to 1500 liters, which has a connection for the garden hose at the bottom:

  • Connect the hose there.
  • Seal the other end of the garden hose with a plug.
  • Now make holes in the hose at the points where the water should run out.
  • This works well with a hammer and nail.
  • Position the hose so that its holes deliver the water directly to the plant roots.

If the water butt does not have a connection for the hose, you can also hang the garden hose into the water over the upper edge. In this case, just make sure that the hose opening is on the bottom and not bobbing around somewhere in the middle or far up at the edge of the barrel - if the water level drops, the opening is suddenly outside the water and the hose can't get any water transport more to the bed. At best, attach the hose end in such a way that it cannot slip or even slip out.

tips

For an irrigation system, you can use not only electricity, but also solar or battery-powered pumps.

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