lehua, Thanks for your reply - much appreciated. I suppose I should have checked more into the forum archives prior to posting - would have prompted me to first check into my hydraulic specs. Our water does come from a municipal source, which obtains it's supply from local fresh water natural lakes/ponds and reservoirs. It is treated with chlorine and fluoride (1.0 mg/l) and has a moderate hardness of 68 to 84 mg/l. I just did a test by filling a 5 gal bucket from the freeze-proof garden bibb, timed it with my phones' stopwatch - and it took exactly 60 seconds to fill to the brim, which equates to 300 gal/hr. The main vegetable planting area consists of (6) 36"+ wide x 18 ft long beds, each naturally bermed about 6" above the 18" wide pathways - which are freshly covered in straw mulch each season. Each row slopes along its length, approx 6" in 18 ft., or 2.8%. We also have a couple of 42" x 12 ft wood-plank raised beds for strawberries, herbs and smaller rotating crops. An 8' x 5' onion patch, 10' x 4' raspberry patch and a 40' x 3' mixed use bed along the east garden fence - all with about a 1.5% slope. The soil composition is 12" to 18" of very rich humus, with a mix of loam + grey clay in the subsoil layers. I have been layering at least 3" of my own organic compost over each bed twice/season, which I first break down with my shredder/chipper. Water plumes have always spread very well when hose/pail watering in the past. Organic additives, such as bone meal, wood ash, and dried blood are added regularly, with limestone tilled in the Fall, if soil ph tests require it. Concentrated fish emulsion is mixed with water and applied by hand to each plant during the growing season. Due to some early blight occurring on our tomatoe and pepper plants, which was spread I believe from water ground splash, I'm thinking drip irrigation may minimize this from happening. I have not yet purchased the inline filter, 3/4" mains and 1/2" laterals, but have received the 3/4" ball valves and electronic water timer/valve I had ordered. The author of a Utah Co-op Extension article on the prototype PVC system (see link), recommends drilling 1/16" holes, in 2-3 hole clusters, spaced to align with individual plants. My plan was to dedicate each lateral to plants with similar needs, with all lateral and major pipe joints being separable to accommodate seasonal rotation and off-season storage. Since I have no experience with this yet, I was waiting for the time when my indoor grown seedlings are about ready for transplanting, before determining hole spacing. Drilling should be easy enough to do when that time comes by setting up a jig. Sorry for being long-winded - many thanks for your encouragement, and system endorsement . . . I feel less like a pioneer now. Best, Steve Here is a link that might be useful: PDF - Designing a Baasic PVC Home Garden Drip Irrigation System

I've shallow wells here with sand points in real fine white sand. Using Hunter popup rotors and toro popup sprays. Located about one mile inland of the gulf, one mile north of a saltwater boca ciega bay,,, surrounded with salt water actually here ....and have a filter similar to the ones on the page below that I bought at either HomeDepot or Lowes Lumber for around $50 or so. Has a nylon screen cylinder inside that the water passes through and comes in various screen hole sizes. 1.5 inch T filter is what i have glued in the pump outlet/ manifold. I put an elbow on the bottom of its little flush valve and flush the sand out manully when it gets up two inches or so,,, which is maybe every three times the pump starts up here .. seems to suck a small palm sized wad of sand at each pump start. Thought about putting a electric sprinkler valve on the bottom of it and pulsing it on for just two or three seconds to blow out the sand at each start, but havent taken the time to do it yet. Here is a link that might be useful: Lubee's, Port Richey FL

Chandra, everything looks so nice. Some problems you may have is due mainly to excess pressure. If you are reading 140 PSI on your gauge you have hooked in to the line ahead of your regulator. Where I live the regulator is supposed to be just down stream of your meter. Here the main line pressure is 150 PSI. I have mine regulated down to about 40 to 45 pounds, (my son across the highway runs 150 pounds on his outside faucet to get greater flow to water the garden and fill the pool). In my opinion that is a mistake because it is too easy to burst hoses. I would like to adjust my pressure up to about 65 pounds but don't want the added risk of blowing a line in the house. The gauge not coming back to zero may because some gauges have a release button on them to let pressure bleed back to zero, although I have never seen one on a water pressure gauge. I would advise you go get a water pressure gauge if you don't have one. They cost between $5.00 and $10.00 at Lowe's of Home Depot. I used an Air pressure gauge for years but I like the water pressure gauge better. The threads are not the same on a water hose and a pipe. The water hose has a 3/4" 11.5 threads per inch water hose thread on it. All 3/4" plumbing will have a 3/4" 14 threads per inch pipe thread. I have many hose threads attached to pipe threads, but I doubt you can make it work because of the high pressure you are running. You can try to put an extra washer in the fitting and see if it will seal. (all hose fittings seal against a washer, all pipe threads seal because the threads are cut on a taper). Some very high pressure applications use a special thread, but nothing like that is used in a home. If you don't get the threads to seal, you can buy adapters. The plastic adapter cost about $1.50 each, the brass adapters cost about $3.50 each. If it would help you I could go out to the shop and take a picture of each. I have to keep them here because I have to drive 50 miles to get the plastic ones, the brass adapters can be bought about anywhere. If I can help in any way just let me know, just be careful about running too much pressure, you may damage some of your equipment. Larry

Several links to tutorials have been posted on this site. (Sorry, I don't have any handy right now.) To avoid broken components, obtain quality commercial equipment. As for heads plugging, that happens even with the most expensive stuff. The guiding rule is to check the heads/drippers on a regular basis and fix/clean/replace as needed