Drip irrigation is fantastic: it waters exactly where you want in a way that saturates the soil without runoff, it loses much less water to evaporation than a sprinkler system, and by keeping the foliage dry, you prevent water spots as well as fungal diseases. Pair it with a timer and you can set it and forget it. Win win win win win.
Drip systems basically go together like legos. Whether you are working on raised beds, containers, or your general landscape, youâll basically end up carrying around a bunch of connection pieces, emitter pieces (or pre-drilled tubing), end pieces, and on/off pieces, along with a pair of Kitchen Scissors or pruners or a dedicated drip irrigation tool. But since itâs all modular, in most cases there arenât threads and youâll need to get good at firmly pressing the tubing into the other pieces or vice versa.
Two recommendations:
- Wear gloves
- Even if youâre just doing a quick repair job, your hands need protectingâhard plastic pieces and you pushing as hard as you can will inevitably result in skin damage if youâre not wearing gloves.
- Get your tubing warm
- Warm tubing is significantly easier to work with. It squishes into fittings, and connector pieces squish into it with much less trouble than attempting to work with tubing at the ambient temperature.
You may ask âBut Cathleen, how am I supposed to heat tubing while Iâm out in my yard?â
The answer: Thermal mugs.
Specifically, I think the best combination is the hydro flask cooler cup with the small slider press-in lid. The thing that sets the cooler cup apart is the silicone ring that attaches to the bottom of the mug (when itâs not on top keeping a can stable). The ring gives you two important things:
1. It adds greater stability (youâre going to want to put it down on the gravel or mulch or lawn or pavers or whatever, and itâs full of very hot water) and 2. It prevents scuffing the paint job on your mug.
The slider lid fits a 1/4â piece of tubing without needing to remove the lid. (I have a lot of mug lids, and this is the only one with the right size/shaped opening).
Youâll want to fill the cup with boiling water and keep the lid fully closed until you need to warm the end of your tubing. The 1/4â fits perfectly in the opening left by the slider moving back (but youâll need to pry the top off for 1/2â tubing).
By the time the water has cooled to ~150F (boiling is >200F), youâll be exerting way more force and youâll start wishing you had listened to me about wearing glovesâfor me thatâs the signal to go in and refill my mug with boiling water again; it saves so much trouble. đŤÂ