Soaker hoses: Save time, save water

Published 11:57 am Friday, June 5, 2009

Sometimes, I’m not very smart.

Example. When this warm weather hit, I started to resent the time spent watering the garden. I’d stand outside watering and complaining about “stupid wastes of time, mutter, mutter.” At the same time, I’d lament the water running off where I didn’t need it.

I’ll go ahead and assume you are a smarter gardener than me. The solution is obvious, right? Well, I can be slow, it took a few days to get my brain in order. I blame the sun.

I now have a labor-saving soaker hose in my raised beds. It took a good amount of time in the sun (and a sunburn — it’s hard to put sunscreen on your own back) but it’s all nicely laid out now. Now my plants — and not the surrounding dirt — are getting watered with minimal effort from me. Assuming, of course, I can remember to turn the water on and off. I have some problems.

The soaker hose is not working as well in my front yard, where I have a few plants on a slope at the edge of my yard. I have to keep the hose very low, and leave it for a long time or else all of the water just runs off. Next year, I’ll do something different with this space. I think I’ll either build it up and level it off, or just plant some drought tolerant decorative plants there.

A few tips I discovered while putting out my soaker hose:

• Lay out the hose in the sun first. It’ll soften it up some and make it easier to work with.
• Landscape cloth anchors work great to hold a hose in place around bends. I’m sure you could also use a lot of other things, but the anchors were easy to find and worked well for me.
• If you’re laying out a complicated path, be sure to watch the hose closely the first time you turn on the water. You don’t want the hose pulling free and messing up your plants. Go ahead, ask me how I learned that.
• If you’re smart and well-prepared, putting out the soaker hose before you even plant would be a great idea. You would just need carefully plan your plant layout ahead of time. Of course, if you do this you risk watering empty dirt if something dies off, but I would just plop something new in any empty spaces.