Installing a Drip System in the Vegetable Garden

So, I've already established that our vegetable garden has an odd shape. It's basically pizza-shaped. I rather call it native American medicine wheel shaped because every time I use the word pizza I end up dialing the phone for Domino's.

*** call to Domino's pause ***

So, installing a drip system is a lot like playing with Legos but with more cursing.  You get your little pieces and you push them together. Working on a hot day makes the tubing softer to work with but you sweat more.

Drip systems can become expensive but only because every time you run to the hardware store to get a missing piece you need, you end up buying something you don't need but WANT.  Other than that, the system is affordable and runs for years. I spent about $150 in all for a fairly large garden.

It took me a while to decide how to run the main line. I have one-inch drip irrigation pipes going from a faucet (to which I added a pressure compensator and a timer) running all around the outer edge of the circle.





The tubing is hidden in the wood chips that cover the paths. From that pipe, I attached elbows, risers that go into each bed.

From that riser comes another elbow and a straight line of one-inch tubing. From that tubing comes a variety of micro tubing.

I have tiny sprays for the carrots, but for everything else, I either use perforated micro tubing or un-perforated micro tubing with a head at the end.

When I have more time I might add to this post if anyone has questions.

Holy Mackerel, First Potatoes!

So, I planted some potatoes.

Or to be specific I found germinated dried up potatoes in the cupboard and I tossed them somewhere in the yard and forgot all about them.

Until I asked myself, what is that weird plant coming out of the strawberry patch?  I pulled it out, believing it was a weed ...

... And out came the most darling little potatoes I had ever laid eyes on.

Honestly, had I dug up a raw diamond I would have been less excited.



True, I have no idea what I am doing, but Nature knows, so we're okay.

The Vegetable Garden in Early June

From ugly lawn to Garden of Eden.  To think that we began the work in February blows my mind.

The joy this vegetable garden has added to our lives is hard to measure. We are always outside, gardening or picking or enjoying the many surprises the garden offers.  Is it work? Yes. But it's work in the same way that raising children is work. Enough love and enjoyments comes with it that we don't call it work.

In fact, I mostly feel that the plants do all the work and all we do is get the reward of their effort.

Garden view from above.

Bush beans in front and tomatoes behind them.

A wee watermelon plant.

Corn in back, cucumber in the center, and yet to be identified squashes in corners. We still have not learn to label things.

Everything humming with life.

Stop the Press! First Harvest.

I'm in love. In love with a radish and a carrot. I've only put one image here but I took dozens of pictures, like the veggi-razzi that I have become.

A radish and a carrot in tender embrace. 

Beets: can't live without them; Can't kill them.

Beets are so pretty that I almost forgive them for tasting hideous.  If you disagree on this point, here is my argument:  Insects are all over our vegetables. The only plant they won't touch are the beets. I'm just sayin' ...



OMG am I really going to have tomatoes. Still can't quite trust it.



Peas. One or two at first, and we were so excited! Our excitement  did wane a bit after we had to eat them at every meal for two weeks.





Strawberries delicately lifted off the ground. Soon, they came so hard and fast that the thought of lifting each of them off the ground became laughable.

Vegetable Garden: Lessons and Revelations

Although we still don't know if the plan works and if we'll end up with a harvest of any kind, my husband and I found ourselves constantly in the garden. The backyard was a lawn; it was mostly used as a latrine for the dog.  The kids were too old to play outside. Essentially the backyard was unused and a drain on resources. We used too much water and paid a disgruntled gardener to mow.  Once a week, I would come in with a bag and shovel and pick up dog poop before he could mow.  So yes, it was not fun.

Now it is FUN with capital letters.

Experimenting with mulch. I'm using oak leaves from the backyard.

First tomato ever! First of MANY

First strawberries. They will eventually cover the entire beds.

Every morning, the first thing we do is go around the yard and admire our new children. They are cute! My husband is always puttering in it, thinning carrots or adding support for peas or tomatoes. We start noticing birds and bees. Were they there before but we did not know because we hardly went outside? Or are they attracted to the garden now?

Vegetable Garden: What Have We Done?!

Update from the vegetable garden. Still no drip system, but I don't care. Why did I ever think we needed one? It's march and cool out. I have conveniently forgotten that in the Valley (as in Los Angeles San Fernando Valley) summer temperature can reach over 110 degrees. But a mild form of amnesia compounded with winter lethargy has replaced my initial energy. I do better with super physical jobs than tedious ones where I have to learn something.

Planting all veggies at once, damning caution and restraint to the wind.

Meanwhile, the vegetables (and my husband), unlike me, got the memo: Spring has sprung.

 premature tomatoisation.

Carrot seedlings, ponions and asparagus in the back. Or as we say in French "n'importe quoi"

Vegetable mashup 

Here you can see our technique: vegetables are planted without rhyme or reason and with no concern whatsoever for size at maturity or the fact that the beds are too deep to be reached in the center.

Peas so tender and cute

Me, possibly still in denial but starting to realize that things are growing fast and are planted too closely. 

Also, that I better get my s%#t together re: the drip system.

To Drip or Not to Drip: That Is the Question.

Planting a vegetable garden in a desert without using water (or very little of it).

That was the challenge.  My husband and I felt differently about it.  He figured that it's okay to use water if it's for growing food. I wanted to prove to the world and to myself that growing food could conserve water. So, I created a very accurate drip system.

But I did not created it fast enough! While I was busy procrastinating learning about how to install a drip system in vegetable beds with odd shapes and no angles, my husband was busy planting.

The cat, demonstrating the art of relaxation also known as cat butter.

View from above. The vegetables are coming out but the drip system is still only happening in my imagination.

An interesting things happened. As soon as we disconnected the sprinkler system, the bougainvillea began to explode. Today it goes well above the roof.

The Bougainvillea keeps on giving