JEG in Raleigh
Member
We are on an 11 acre, heavily wooded property in Raleigh, NC. When we built our house, we removed trees next to the new house, so we do have a yard, but we do not have any lawn. Instead we have planted some trees (coral bark maples, little gem magnolias, dogwood) and bushes that will grow pretty large (camilia, quince, loropetalum). All added up, I have 20 trees/plants that need to be watered, 10 in the front yard and 10 in the backyard. We continue to go through long dry spells in the summer, and I'll spend 1-1/2 hours watering them all each time they need it, so I'm putting in a simple irrigation system in the backyard to make it less time consuming. This will be supplied by a hose bib. Because of the location and the way the house is built, I cannot install a separate irrigation supply line without it being excessively costly, so the existing hose bib it is.
I am burying 3/4" schedule 40 PVC pipe, about 8" deep for the main line and all branches. The main supply line will be 150' long with branches that tee off it to supply each tree/bush (10 total). Each branch will at most, 5' long. The end of the main supply pipe will emerge from the ground under the hose bib. I'll put a tee on it with a ball valve and pneumatic fitting to be able blow out the system to winterize it. The pipe will then continue up another 12" and terminate with a male hose thread fitting. A 2' length of garden hose will connect the pipe to the hose bib.
At each tree/bush, the branch line will be run to the tree/plant and emerge out of the ground with a male hose thread fitting and screwed to each of those fittings will be a simple hose shutoff valve with female hose thread on one end and male hose thread on the other. Attached to that male hose thread will be a 15' soaker hose that will coil around the tree/bush. So each soaker hose can be turned on or off by the hose shutoff valve that connects to the soaker hose and the volume of water coming out of each of those shutoff valves can be regulated too.
I want to be able to easily add additional branches to new trees/bushes in the future. I'll be taking photos of the ditches that the pipes run in, but I don't know how to really accurately identify the location of the main trunk line throughout its entire 150' run. If I fill the ditches with dirt, it will gradually compact and adding branches will be more difficult and I'll have some difficulty locating the main line. I won't be able to lift the pipe out of the ground to add tee fittings and additional branches, where as now, while I'm building the system, I'm doing all the fabrication with the pipe lying on the ground. Since the yard is naturalized with no lawn, I wanted to put something down to prevent weeds and erosion and to gradually build some better soil since we are in red clay country. The NC State University Arboretum recommended wood chips as a good ground cover for the bare ground, and in the last year, I spread 10 truckloads of wood chips so there is a layer several inches deep on all the ground surrounding the house. Since this ground will never have a lawn I'm thinking that instead of filling the pipe ditches with dirt, I could fill all the pipe ditches with wood chips and that would make it easy for me to pull sections of the pipe completely out of the ground to easily add fittings in the future. I'd then put the line back in the ditch and re-fill the ditch with wood chips and groom the surface of the ground with more wood chips where I had disturbed it. I'd appreciate feedback on this idea. Do you see any reason that I must fill the pipe ditches with dirt? I don't have any sprinkler heads to worry about getting broken and the ends of the branch lines will be right at each tree or bush that it is watering, so they will be quite safe too. Thanks for any feedback.
I am burying 3/4" schedule 40 PVC pipe, about 8" deep for the main line and all branches. The main supply line will be 150' long with branches that tee off it to supply each tree/bush (10 total). Each branch will at most, 5' long. The end of the main supply pipe will emerge from the ground under the hose bib. I'll put a tee on it with a ball valve and pneumatic fitting to be able blow out the system to winterize it. The pipe will then continue up another 12" and terminate with a male hose thread fitting. A 2' length of garden hose will connect the pipe to the hose bib.
At each tree/bush, the branch line will be run to the tree/plant and emerge out of the ground with a male hose thread fitting and screwed to each of those fittings will be a simple hose shutoff valve with female hose thread on one end and male hose thread on the other. Attached to that male hose thread will be a 15' soaker hose that will coil around the tree/bush. So each soaker hose can be turned on or off by the hose shutoff valve that connects to the soaker hose and the volume of water coming out of each of those shutoff valves can be regulated too.
I want to be able to easily add additional branches to new trees/bushes in the future. I'll be taking photos of the ditches that the pipes run in, but I don't know how to really accurately identify the location of the main trunk line throughout its entire 150' run. If I fill the ditches with dirt, it will gradually compact and adding branches will be more difficult and I'll have some difficulty locating the main line. I won't be able to lift the pipe out of the ground to add tee fittings and additional branches, where as now, while I'm building the system, I'm doing all the fabrication with the pipe lying on the ground. Since the yard is naturalized with no lawn, I wanted to put something down to prevent weeds and erosion and to gradually build some better soil since we are in red clay country. The NC State University Arboretum recommended wood chips as a good ground cover for the bare ground, and in the last year, I spread 10 truckloads of wood chips so there is a layer several inches deep on all the ground surrounding the house. Since this ground will never have a lawn I'm thinking that instead of filling the pipe ditches with dirt, I could fill all the pipe ditches with wood chips and that would make it easy for me to pull sections of the pipe completely out of the ground to easily add fittings in the future. I'd then put the line back in the ditch and re-fill the ditch with wood chips and groom the surface of the ground with more wood chips where I had disturbed it. I'd appreciate feedback on this idea. Do you see any reason that I must fill the pipe ditches with dirt? I don't have any sprinkler heads to worry about getting broken and the ends of the branch lines will be right at each tree or bush that it is watering, so they will be quite safe too. Thanks for any feedback.