When you are planning on creating a large vegetable garden you need to keep in mind how you are going to keep the garden watered over the long term, sure you can walk around with a hose spray but this method is slow and not that effective, to water a large garden effectively you really need some sort of automatic watering system installed.
You need to plan right from the start where the garden will be situated and the overall design of the garden beds to maximize the benefits of installing a watering system, place the garden near the water source, pump or tap etc as the least amount of water hose you have above or below the ground feeding the system, the less chance of crushing or cutting through the hose with a spade or fork it does happen.
The garden beds are best positioned in straight lines with just enough space between rows to walk or wheel a barrow through, this will minimize the wast of water that will not reach the plants beds, your automatic watering system will require a few essential components to work hassle free for a long time.
The most important component is the filter this should be placed right at the water source to filter out any dirt that enters the system, smaller filters can also be placed at the start of each row along with a shut of valve to control water flow to each row and the smaller filters act as a back up to the main filter, the filters are essential more so with the fine mist sprayers as any dirt in the system will render these useless.
During the hot summer months a timer can be a very useful component to the watering system, as the plants may need watering a couple of times per day, and donot skimp and buy a cheap one you do not need the timer malfunctioning and watering your garden 24/7 or not watering the garden at all, the timer does make the system more complicated and you need to test the timer each week to make sure it is working correctly.
Watering components, the main waterline needs to be the largest diameter as this will feed the irrigation lines that feed of it, drippers release a small amount of water over a long length of time, these are suitable for individual plants like tomatoes and wastes the least amount of water as one dripper can be positioned at the base of each plant diverted of a central irrigation line running down the row of tomatoes.
The fine misters are great for planter boxes and pots as they cover a large area but they do waste a fair amount of water particularly on a windy day as the water droplets are small and tend to get blown around before the water gets to the plants.
The revolving sprinkler systems are more suited to a large area these are usually used by commercial growers to cover large crops, the revolving irrigation system also uses the most amount of water as they throw out large droplets of water, you can also purchase mini revolving sprinklers but they do tend to stop working with a dirty water source.
The great advantage of the plastic hoses and fittings of the modern irrigation systems are cost and expandability, the systems are cheap to by and set up, just about anyone can set up there own irrigation system and when you change the garden layout or add a new garden you can just add to the watering system you already have in place.
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