I'm learning a thing or two about gardens this year, and with the drought we've gone through so far this summer - combined with being away from the house on weekends camping - I've learned that we need a way to water our small garden while we're away from the house. I've planning for next year, and think I might go with a soaker hose or run some drip irrigation. Whatever I put in, it'll likely be set on a timer. Our garden is in a series of small raised areas, with five different 4'x4' sections. Some of those sections have four plants, spaced like the four dots on a die. Some of those sections have only one row of veggies in the back portion of that section. To put it simply, the garden is not completely symmetric. This may change next year, but maybe not.

What are your experiences with soaker hoses or drip irrigation? Is one better than the other for certain applications? What are some pros/cons of each of them? I sure would like to do better with my garden next year.

I've got drip irrigation on my garden and it works great. I set it on a timer all summer and don't have to worry about watering. The soaker line I used didn't supply adequate water. It might be just the stuff I bought but drip lines are the way to go in my opinion

And have some cats that are heck on mice.

I agree with BH. Soaker best for row crops and drip for individual plants. I like soaker best because it is easier to winterize here in the Great White North.

Agree drip for individual plants saves water and why water weeds, soaker hose for row crops like beans peas corn. However I have used the mini misters for row crops and water early in the morning. Water is getting to be a big concern here also reservoirs are dry or drying up a couple more years and we will be in real bad shape. Guessing the price of produce and fruit will sky rocket as the big reservoirs like Mead and Powell are going dry with restrictions going into place.

I use a drip irrigation system for my pumpkin patch. Only water what needs to be watered. Set up on a timer. Easy to adjust the timer if conditions change. Has worked really well for 5 years. The only hassle is when I want to rearrange plant positions at the start of a new season. Once it is laid out and functioning, nothing to do except watch the pumpkins grow.

How well do drip and soaker systems work with high levels of calcium and iron in the water?

Keith

Worked on a project that got it's patent. the design was to use Tremvac like what is used on houses and made into tubes and put in the ground and hooked up to a water bladder.
the plant learned what is fertized and put their roots there. lasted 3 years
Israel main money source is cut flower industry and it is used there, saves 95% of the irrigation water.

Been through them all. Drip tape is the only way to go.

Use the 8 mil for single season use. Like in hilled potatoes.
12 or 15 mil can be used for several years.

Go with drip and get the flag style drippers, not the round ones. You can take the flag style apart and clean them out, not so with the round ones.

Iron and calcium are very hard on drip emitters. You might look at the micro sprinklers/ sprays -- you can see if they are working or not and the ports are bigger -- oversize a filter 5-10 gpm and use the finest one you can get 5- 10 micron will also help with some of the plugging issues. If you are having issues run a bleach solution through the lines to help clean them (not onto the plants though).

We buried drip irrigation tape in about 4 acres of strawberries. It was nothing but trouble when it came to varmints chewing It up. Like a ford fix or repair daily. We never ever used It again. Now It's a above ground sprinkler system.

Tape is not tube and yes both can have varmint issues --- tape is a good option in alot of cases. I have designed, sold, and serviced most types of irrigation systems for about 30 years. There are pros and cons to any type of system you use - pick the one that best fits your management practices. Beav - in your case (not knowing much about you) i would have probably picked solid set handlines or buried solid set. Keith -- for the garden boxes my first pick would be micro sprinklers (again not knowing much about you) -- second would be emitters or tape. You can combine the types fairly easily -- 1 box could be tape and 1 box could be micro sprinkler and 1 box could be emitter -- depending on what you plant in the boxes. Watch the application rates and you can adjust a couple of sizes or rates to get them so that you can run on 1 timer.

Thanks for the update H2oRat.
reminds me of a story of how a new gardener bought a 99 cent cuc plant spent all season watering to pick 3 cucs to eat, then went to the store and bought 3/99cents
did see give up....heavens no she was married to a trapper that would go out and chase 2$ racoons and sell them for bla-bla-bla

there is something that bears just want to sink their teeth into black water pipes

If your gone that long how do you keep varmits from eating it up ?

Not enough varmints to worry about, and it's a really small garden. We're only gone for a day or two, three at most. It's been so hot and dry here it doesn't take long for the garden to droop & shrivel. Heck, my grass has been dormant for a month or more now!

I mulch a bunch of my garden pretty heavily with grass clippings. Really cuts down on water needed and weeds.

This is the stuff dad settled on and we like it just about though the second year and no trouble, we open the ends up and drain it, it’s easy for us because everything here is up hill, our water is more rust issues than calcium but we do have some.

https://www.dripworks.com/drip-irrigation/tubing/1-2-emitter-tubing