Today we have just installed a super cheap irrigation system in our raised vegie bed using lengths of an old garden hose and a few plastic elbow and T-joints etc.
We cut the hose to the desired lengths, clamped the ends and drilled the holes along the hose with a 2mm drill bit at 100mm distances. We then attached the elbow and T-joints and attached the system to the edge of the raised garden bed. The raised bed is 4ft x 8ft so along the long side we placed each length of hose 1 foot in from the edge which gives us the perfect coverage of the whole bed. It took us about 30-45 minutes.
The total cost was under $10 and it works like a charm so we are now going to install another one in the other raised bed. This will now cut down on watering time, save us on water bills but it will also water the vegies at the base of the plants instead of on the leaves reducing the chance of fungal growth.
We had considered using poly pipe or PVC pipe but had the surplus garden hose anyway so we thought we would give it a go.
Any suggestion to improve on this design would be more than welcome.
