🖼️
The project:
We built our house about 2 years ago, and started our yard from a blank canvas. We have installed 7x Colourbond raised garden beds, complete with an embedded irrigation system that is automated.
- Materials:
Garden beds
- The beds are premade by a person who uses leftover bits and pieces from building sheds. I first ordered 3, and gradually ordered more and more, currently at 7, with 1 more coming shortly.
- Some beds were half willed with tree branches, cuttings and other greenwaste, then topped with soil and Seasol Super Compost (I/N: 0274164).
- Once I'd run out of greenwaste, the other beds were filled with the cheapest soil mix I could find (Garden Basics 25L All Purpose Potting Mix, I/N: 0274301), and then topped with Super Compost.
- On average, per 1x 2500mm x 800mm bed, I used about 35 bags of the cheap potting mix and then 10 bags of Super Compost. Huge thanks to the Bunnings staff who rolled the pallet of potting mix out to near my car to help load them up.
- In an ideal world, I would rather have a truck load of compost / soil mix delivered and then I would move them using a shovel and wheelbarrow. This would have saved a lot of plastic bags. However, using the bags was the fastest option for me as a time-poor parent.
Embeded Irrigation
- Polypipe - 13mm for branches and 19mm for the main run
- Inline barbed valves
- 13mm and 19mm elbows, T junctions, joiners, clamps, end caps etc
- 4mm irrigation drip flex tube to connect sprinklers
- K-Rain 360° Adjustable Vortex Spray (I/N 0131050)
Automation for irrigation
- I initially used a Nylex timer from Bunnings, but since it used a solenoid, each time when it finished the watering schedule, we could hear a "bang" (but not quite a hammer) through the house.
- I ended up getting a smart ball valve (Ecowitt WFC02), since I already have an Ecowitt weather station.
- I also have an Ecowitt soil moisture sensor in each garden bed.
- Tools:
Pliers
Tool to cut the poly pipes
Trowel or shovel to embed the poly pipe through the dirt (which was to become our lawn)
- Step 1:
Planning
But since our plans gradually changed a few times as it's an evolving project, I had to re-configure the irrigation system a few times.
I mistakenly assumed that our western fenceline would get enough direct sunlight in winter. I was wrong! The neighbours' trees cast a much taller shadow than expected. So I had to enlist the help of a friend to move 3 filled garden beds from the western fenceline to the southern fenceline. A huge thankyou to my friend A.
This is the blank canvas we started with.
(Side note: I also installed the Hills rotary clothesline (I/N: 0170069) myself).
- Step 2:
Set up garden beds and irrigation - Main Garden Bed Area
- Ordered garden beds. Once delivered, set them up where they will be.
- I then ran the main irrigation line from near the house to the garden beds. This was initially run to Garden Bed (GB) 1, and then downhill to GBs 2-4. However, I then moved GBs 2-4 up to the southern fenceline; so now the main irrigation was run to GB 1 and then went uphill to GB 2-4. The water pressure was pretty bad when I had sprinklers on in all GBs. It didn't help that I initially only had 4 GBs so decided to use 13mm poly pipe as my main line.
- I recently purchased GBs 5-6. I have then rerun the section between the house and the GB area, using a 19mm main line. The main line is then split into 2 sections, controllable using 2x 19mm valves. One goes to GB 4 and then runs downhill to GB 3, 2 and 1; the other valve controls GBs 5 and 6. The numbering is confusing, so they have been renumbered but for consistency sake for this post, I am using the old numbering.
- For ease of future servicing, the main water line is embedded into the grass / dirt in front of the GBs, and not under them.
- For each GB, the mainline is cut, and a T junction is used to connect a 13mm offshoot. Via several elbows the 13mm pipe then comes out the top inside the beds. A valve is connected before the short section of pipe that connects the spinklers. This ensures that each GB can be individually turned on / off.
- Step 3:
Set up Garden Beds - Secondary area
I also set up garden beds in a secondary area near our house as shown below.
Before:
After:
- Step 4:
Irrigation Automation
As mentioned above, I am now using an Ecowitt WFC02 smart ball valve. That is connected via RF to an Ecowitt gateway. So I am able to control the valve using an app on my phone.
At the moment I am setting it to water every so many days - ie a simple schedule. When I have time, I can link the watering schedule with the soil moisture sensors already in each garden bed.
- Step 5:
Other improvements
While the main focus of this post is the project of setting up the garden beds and embedded automated irrigation system, as you can see from the "after" photos in Step 3, there have been other improvements done, such as the lawn, sectioning off the (almost permanently dry) section of area using edging stones (Brighton Masonry 230 x 110 x 80mm Charcoal Garden Edge - Charcoal I/N: 3041542), and filling that area with Tassie Gold.
The orange paint you can see on the grass is in prep for a new deck.
- Step 6:
Let's get our veggies growing!
So far we have grown these in the beds over the last year:
- Rhubarb
- Lettuce
- Garlic
- Tomatoes
- Broccolini - failed, started too late
- Brussels Sprouts - failed, started too late
Recently started growing:
- A lemon tree
- Spinach
- Some ornamentals
