Recently we have decided to turn what used to be our chicken run (something got in, from above, no more chickens sadly) into a vegetable garden. The problem is that it is about 200' away from the house, so I am trying to figure out a simple solution for keeping anything we try to grow watered.

At the moment we are sort of in the planning stages of things, but have been trying to grow pumpkin vines up there (so far, one pumpkin, but plenty of vines!!). Anyway, as I have been carrying watering cans full up there for the pumpkins, it has me thinking about how I can water things a little easier and without having to make several trips with water.

I can hook up a 200' hose to the back of the house, which would be the simplest solution, but I would have to keep rolling the hose back up, coupled with having well water and not great water pressure, I am not so sure on the idea. I was thinking of putting a rain barrel up there, but that still leaves having to use a watering can. I am wondering if it would work to place the rain barrel on a stand, then hooking up some drip irrigation tubing to the barrel and letting gravity do the work of it flowing out the bottom of the barrel and out the tubing. I also like the idea of using the rain barrel, as it's not using water from the house (ideally, I would find a way to drain my aquarium water to the rain barrel, but the whole 200' away makes it no feasible!!)

Assuming that works (or not) anyone have any other suggestions that work well?

Thanks.

 

I'll defer to others as far as a direct answer to your question since I don't have any fresh thoughts right now, but one thing I would do as an also ran is to get plenty of straw on the ground around the plants. The straw will help hold the moisture once you get it there and will help with the weeds because weeding around pumpkins and squash is a real chore as the vines take over more real estate.

 

Is your garden uphill, downhill or at about the same elevation as the house? Why do you have to roll up your hose each time you use it?

A hose would be my first choice. For that long a run the flow resistance in a garden hose is quite high. I would get a 250' coil of 1" black poly pipe and put fittings on the end so you can hook it up to a spigot at your house with a short garden hose. Then at the garden use fittings so you can connect a garden hose there for watering. The black poly is OK in the sun but the water can get scalding hot at times so burying it would be best. If buried you can leave it in place and never have to roll it up or move it.

You mentioned a rain barrel. How would you fill it 200 feet from the house? Without a roof or rain catch sail or some other collection surface a barrel won't help much since you still have to transport water out to it. And, one barrel won't be enough during July and August. I don't know the size of your garden but you can easily use 100 gallons a week on a moderately sized garden.

Do you have a lawn/garden tractor? Do you have a wagon? If so then you can put a water tank or barrel in the wagon. Fill it at the house and pull it to the garden. With a large diameter hose you can get good volume by gravity. I water my garden from a pond and have a tank in a wagon that I pull with the Gator. I use a small Honda WX10 water pump to fill the tank from the pond. Then drive up to the garden and switch the hoses so the pump feeds a garden hose for watering.

 

The garden is maybe slightly uphill, but close enough that I would say it is at the same elevation. However, between the house and the garden is a dip in the yard that I would guess is somewhere between 15-20' below at it's lowest point. From the house gradually goes downhill until about halfway between, then uphill to the garden.

I'd have to roll the hose away as otherwise I would risk running over it with the mower.

OK, so burying it is certainly an option and simply hooking up short garden hoses either end keeps things nice and tidy. I know that certain pipework has to be buried to specific depths to meet code, is that something that would apply to essentially a gardening water hose? Digging a 12" deep trench for 200' (especially this time of year) will be anything but fun.

Good point, while there is a small shed there that I could put a gutter on to collect water, it's not that big and would likely take way too long to fill and empty way too quickly.

I do have a lawn tractor, but no wagon. And, to be honest even if I did I could see hauling 500lb of water behind the tractor I have shortening the tractors (transmission) life drastically. It's just a small John Deere D130.

Think I will look into burying the hose option, realistically the garden is not going to be fully ready until next Spring so I have plenty of time. We just started converting the chicken run to a garden and have a bunch of work to do before planting a bunch of things.

 

It sounds like burying a pipe is the best solution. There is no code requirement so you can bury it however deep you want. For such a long run I would rent a trencher. It could cut a trench the whole way in an hour so you'd only need a half day rental.