How simple can irrigation be? As I mentioned on our Farm Page, we are truly blessed with water. Numerous springs flow into our small creeks which run through the property. These creeks aren't very large due to the slope of the land. The water just moves too fast, but this free water provides all the irrigation needs at Blackberry Blossom Farm & Campground.
So how do we catch it?
We've installed a couple of pretty good systems to take advantage of the continuously flowing free water. The main system is fed from a small pond. It's piped down through the main field of the farm and is used for watering the Compass Garden where most of our farm produce is grown. It also irrigates the Red & Yellow Raspberry patches and the large Blackberry patch at the lower end of the farm. Go to our Planting Raspberries page to see details and pictures of this process.
I've installed a Drip Irrigation system in the Raspberry patches. This drip system has a main shutoff valve and a control valve for each row of berries. The valves are below ground and covered with plastic valve boxes so I can mow over them. Easy, and simple too...
Each berry row is 50 ft. long so I ran a piece of 3/4 " poly pipe next to the plants for the entire row. I purchased the poly pipe in 100 ft. rolls from Lowe's Home Improvement Center. It'll cover 2 rows per roll of pipe. I've found that buying pipe locally is a lot cheaper because of the shipping cost. The lower ends of these pipes are fitted with screw on caps to drain them in the fall.
I installed drip emitters in the poly pipe; one on either side of each plant. This system has worked real well so I'm planning to install the same system in the Blackberry patch. I use a self flushing "Katif" emitter purchased from the folks at Dripworks Irrigation . They aren't very expensive, are easy to install, and do a great job. They sell a couple of doo-dads to put these emitters into the pipe. I tried the "Miracle Punch" which works O.K. but found using the cheaper and simpler Punch/Inserter does the job just as well.
Warning, Poly Pipe Tip...
If you choose to install a drip irrigation system the way I have, be aware that not all poly pipe sold by the large home improvement centers such as Lowe's and Home Depot are the same. After I had purchased five 100 ft. rolls of pipe, cut them in half, laid them down my berry rows and installed emitters in several rows of pipe, I couldn't, for the life of me, insert the emitters into the pipe on the next row. I thought the punch/inserter had worn out. The problem turned out to be the wall thickness on this roll of pipe was greater than the others. This pipe is rated for a higher pressure but was sold with the thinner walled pipe for the same price. I simply couldn't push the emitters into it and had to replace it. Now I always check when buying pipe, but who would've thought!
Canadian geese, George and Gracie, regular seasonal visitors to the large pond.
Mountain Water
There's a second irrigation system which is fed from one of our creeks. Several hundred yards up the mountain creek I built a small dam. There's a 3/4 inch poly pipe running from the water behind the dam, down the creek, to the farm. About half way down, the water runs through an old water heater tank I salvaged from the dump. The tank acts as settling filter for any dirt or debris picked up at the intake. I have a valve on the tank drain so I just open this valve several times a year to drain the yuck out of the bottom of the tank. It's surprising how the pressure builds as the water flows down the mountain.
She's gonna blow!
Before I installed the water heater tank, I tried a 55 gal drum as a settling tank, but the pressure almost popped the ends right out of the drum! It was quite a sight!
We've buried 3/4 inch poly pipe running from this system down through the front yard to the farm. Hose bibs with cutoff valves are located next to each of the plantings beds. We irrigate the beds using hoses and sprinklers.
Moving that free water out...
I've built several sprinklers by mounting an oscillating sprinkler head on the top of a 10 ft. long 1/2" galvanized pipe. The bottom of this pipe is connected to an H-shaped support also made of 1/2" galv. pipe. With the sprinkler heads so high and the pressure so great, we can irrigate a circular area about 60 ft. across. The flow remains continuous, we can water around the clock if we need to. Now that's irrigation, simply... water put where you need it.
Not to worry though, there's still plenty of water flowing down the creek to support those creatures who call that home.
Update: 2010
After the drought we have endured the past couple of years, the springs feeding our creeks really slowed down. Then came all of the rain last summer and the creeks are flowing better than ever. When I look at the creeks now, I always think; "I wish I had about a billion gallon storage tank so I could save all of that water for the next drought". But if I could do that, it would take away some of the "fun and adventure" of living here!