I have a garden with about 10 raised beds totaling ~1000 SF including walkways. It is in the country and I only get there every couple of weeks so I needed an automatic irrigation system. I purchased a six zone irrigation controller and located all the zone valves in an above ground valve box next to my irrigation well. I ran 3/4" PVC lines underground and installed a hydrant valve at each bed. Several beds were served from a single zone because I needed a couple of the zones to irrigate some fruit trees. At each bed I used 1/4" dripline which has drippers spaced at 12". The driplines are long enough to run back-and-forth the length of the bed three times so that I get pretty even watering. Any bed that is not being used can be shutoff at its valve and the other beds on that zone continue to operate. I also have one dripline that I run across a number of individual pots. I originally tried running separate hoses with drippers on the ends of the hoses to serve each pot. However I found that using a single dripline is much more flexible since I am continually adding or removing pots. I originally used soaker hose but found that the hoses only last about a year before they become hardened from exposure to the sun and the water emitted becomes very irregular. They also break easily after they harden. I also found that it is very important to filter the water to keep the driplines from plugging. I started using one of the small dripline strainer/filters which has a small mesh metal strainer to remove particles. However I still had plugging from the small sand particles that got through the strainer. I ended up installing a household type water filter with a replaceable paper filter. It is installed between the well and the zone valves and has worked great. I need to dump the collected sand every couple of months. The system has worked great and I have been able to have a garden under less than ideal conditions considering how little attention I am able to give it. Your needs are probably less but the same concepts should apply.

ng, Spacing is not as important as time. You can run ay system long enough to get the proper water needs to the plant. The difficulty starts when you have different plants with different water need amounts on the same zone. You have the right idea about being able to shut off sections to cultivate the plot while growing other plots. Different vegetables have different life cycles. Soaker hoses are difficult because you can't control the amount of water coming from the hose (they also clog over time) as with drip tape or emitters. On the same zone you can have plants with larger drip rates and those with slower drip rates but it is trial and error to set up. It is better to have separate plant zones with similar watering needs together and just work out the time by trial and error method. You do have to initially check the water in the soil to see if plants are getting what they need. Your idea about getting water to the beds is a good one and the way I would do it. Make sure you pour some concrete at all the bends so they can't move (thrust blocks). JMHO Aloha

Patti, Six inches is fine as long as there is soil beneath the raised bed and not concrete. : ) If you have concrete (hey, I have seen people build raised beds on top of patios and driveways), by chance, I'd go with a minimum of 12-18". I have used square foot gardening and it works fine for me, although since I use lots of cages and trellises to raise plants higher off the ground and use less ground space, it is more cubed-foot gardening than square foot. Either works well here. Dripworks offers very high quality materials and their service is second to none. I would recommend them. They have a design service and will help you design your layout free of charge, so by all means, let them! They will help you every way they can and you have the benefit of their knowledge and experience. For the really long run you can use driptape with emitters or plain old soaker hoses. Your choice. If your 70' long bed is level and doesn't have complicated elevation changes, I'd probably use soaker hoses placed under mulch so that the soaker hoses would last longer (since exposure to UV rays breaks them down more quickly). Soaker hoses would give you even moisture distribution all along the bed. I tend to side with your DH if the device you're talking about is the magnetic water thingy they sell. I don't remember its name. To me, the magnetic device is unproven junk science and independent research studies do not seem to back up the theory or anecdotal reports about how such systems work. I'm not an expert, though, by any means. You will neeed some sort of filter and they sell them and can recommend the best one for your circumstances. You might want to onsider adding the fertigation device to make it easier to feed your plants, especially if you are not going to garden organically. I garden organically and let the soil feed the plants, but I'd fertigate if I wasn't organic and thought my plants needed to be fed. (Some organic gardeners do fertigate using organic products, but I haven't fed it necessary in well-enriched soil that has adequate amounts of organic matter.) What we have done right with regards to irrigation, whether by soaker hose or dripline, is to watch the soil closely and understand how quickly it dries out in different conditions. You can't just install a system, set it on a timer, and walk away from it and never change it throughout the entire growing season. You have to pay attention to how fast or slow your soil drains as well as the water needs of your various plants. Very large plants in 95 degree weather have entirely different water needs than small plants in 70 degree weather, for example. Also, if rain is falling and your system is on a timer, shut off the timer if adequate rainfall is occurring. Otherwise, you can overwater. Plants will suck up a lot more water in July than in May, so don't assume that the amount of irrigation that kept them happy in May will keep them happy in July. When I plant, I zone plants together....plants that need little if any irrigation are together in beds and plants that guzzle lots of water are together in other beds. If you mix water guzzling plants together with plants that prefer low water in the same rows or beds, you'll never be able to keep both types happy. So, before you lay out your driptape, know exactly what plants will be planted where. I use both drip irrigation and soaker hoses and am happy with both. I've even used drip irrigation to water the hanging baskets of flowers on the wraparound porch. However, they are not perfect. Emitters clog and you have to watch and pay attention to your system. Also, there is no way to water "by formula". Often, people who are new to soaker hose and dripline irrigation want to be given a formula like "water twice a week for 30 minutes" and there is just no formula that works like that because rainfall and evaporation rates vary so much as does the ability of soil to hold moisture and plants to take up moisture. You just need to learn to water your plants when they need moisture and don't water them when they don't. It sounds simple, but lots of folks overwater to the detriment of their plants. After a whole growing season with your new raised beds, you'll have a good understanding of how quickly the beds' soil dries out in various conditions as well as how quickly or slowly the plant roots take up the water and how much evaporation and wind dry out the soil. That experience will enable you to confidently set a timer and use it most of the time while making adjustments depending on the variables in weather conditions. Dawn

Randy... Definitely drill holes in the bottom. You don't want any standing water. A lot of 1/4" holes will do. It looks like you've used regular lumber, which is prone to rapid rot. In a situation like that, I would paint the inside with at least two liberal coats of evaporative cooler coating. You can buy this at hardware stores, Walmart, etc. This is a benign substance, similar to asphalt, and will last for quite a while, protecting the wood from moisture. Do this after drilling the holes, making sure the coating doesn't fill the holes. I would treat the outside with Thompson's Water Seal to further preserve the wood. I would elevate the four posts on bricks or concrete blocks to combat rot. Treat the bottoms of the posts with Thompsons or a copper-based material. Your bed will require 16 cubic feet of artificial soil, which could be expensive, but you only have one small bed. You might first find 10 cubic feet of good peat-based potting soil (five 2-cubic foot bags). mix in five cubic feet of coconut coir (2 bales), and one cubic foot of worm castings. The potting soil will have good water retention, the coir will provide good drainage, and the worm castings will supply the soil organisms. Notice that I didn't mention compost. You shouldn't need it. The mix I described above won't have meaningful amounts of fertilizer, so you can control the nutrients you supply with a water soluble fertilizer such as Jack's 20-20-20, which includes minor nutrients. Have fun.