Raised Bed Garden Watering

It's been months since I bought the wrong watering kit for my garden.  Yesterday, in a fit of energy, I finally returned the wrong and got the right.

This is the right one, from Lee Valley.  The cost is $26.50.

Here is the instruction sheet.

Sounds easy right?  Well it actually was easy!  From start to finish, it took 40 minutes, which includes time to look for pants to wear, so, um, it really took maybe 35 minutes.

After removing tape from the coiled rolls of hose, I grabbed a pair of scissors to cut the feeder hose to length.  I fretted that it would be hard to uncoil the hose, but it wasn't too bad.

1.  Attach header hose to hose/faucet connector.

2.  Attach hose/faucet connector to faucet, which is off!  This helps to straighten out the header hose, which miraculously became straight after attaching to the faucet.

3.  Lay out your header hose.  I led the hose right to  my garden and lay it along the edge of the long wall.

I decided to use all 5 included sprinklers for my 12 foot bed by putting a sprinkler in every two feet.

For each sprinkler:

1.  Punch a hole in the Header Hose using the Hole Punch.  This compresses the Hose but eventually the Hole Punch will make it through.  You can plump up the Hose after you've inserted the feeder tube by re-shaping it with your fingers.

2.  Each Spectrum Spike has an end connector attached it (picture below, my thumb and forefinger are holding on to the end connector.  Twist it off.  

3.  Push the slanted end into the punched hole.  It may click into place.

4.  Cut a length of Feeder Tube.  It runs between the Header Hose and your Spectrum Spike.  I needed about 2 feet to reach the centre of my bed.  You will need five of these for the five Spectrum Spikes.  I ended up making some too long.

5.  Attach Feeder Tube to the end connector attached to the Header Hose.

6.  Attach the Feeder Hose to the Spectrum Spike and push the Spectrum Spike into the soil.

7.  Attach the End Connector to the Header Hose.

Done!  Unfortunately, my plants are too tall at this stage for the sprinklers.  The maximum height of the plants for the sprinklers is 12 inches.  I should have installed it a long time ago.  So I have been eating the leaves in the way of the sprinkler, but there are quite a few outer edge spots that the sprinkler won't reach, simply because there are plants in the way.

Here are the sprinklers in action.  Adjust the sprinkler output by screwing/unscrewing the top cap of the sprinkler.