The BEST DIY Raised Bed Garden DRIP IRRIGATION Install Guide 

I've said this before but it bears repeating: I like the logical, concise way your mind works. You make complex instructions easy, even for those of us with only two working neurons. You probably have already thought of this, but I'd like to see how you treat the irrigation system at the *end* of the growing season. I think it would make an interesting future video. Thanks for all your very helpful suggestions!

Thanks for this video, it’s much easier to watch and understand than Drip Depots videos. Happy Gardening 🧑‍🌾

Very clean install! I actually bury my 1/2” feeder lines with mulch because it gets so hot where I live that the water will boil my plants roots if the tubing is out in the sun.

Great job... I was motivated to put in a system...then I remembered I don't have a garden yet

After watching your drip irrigation videos, I finally felt confident doing this in my backyard, it looks and works great! Next stop, rain barrels!

This has been an EXCELLENT series. Thank you for putting it all together.

I just found your channel today and I am so glad I did. What great info you put out and you have to be one of the best at describing how to do something of most of the people out there. You don’t miss anything. Thank you for sharing your knowledge with all of us.

Very thorough in his presentation and doesn't talk to fast. Excellent!! Thank You!

What an outstanding video! Thank you for being so thorough and detailed. I have not seen anything that compares to this. I'm not technically inclined, but with your instruction, I believe that I can do this. I look forward to watching your other videos.

Thank you so much for teaching how to do this. I’ve been wanting a watering system for a long time but didn’t know how to go about it in raised beds. Thank you for breaking it down into doable steps. God bless you! 🙏 I wish I could give Dale a 🤗. He’s so cute!

Configuring it in a manifold system is smart as it will allow the same pressure on each "branch". Great job sir.

Another great, very through, easy to follow instructional video. Thank you again for taking the time to make this video. Looking forward to part 3!

This is a fantastic, simple system description. Thanks.

This is such a wonderful video. My drip system failed last year and i threw in the towel, but you have empowered me. Thanks

This is an INCREDIBLY great tutorial!!!!

Thanks so much, I've used the drip systems offered at Home Depot but was never impressed. I like the system you are using and I just placed an order with your link, looking forward to installing the new drip system in my own raised beds. Thanks for your always thorough instructions and positive attitude!!!

thank you for sharing. I have no idea where to start. But after watching ur video I have better ideas and vision for my project.

Very nice video. I finished my earlier this year but it is so important to use someone like drip depot so you can be certain everything will fit very well. There are actually 3 different half inch size distribution lines and they don’t or won’t play well together. Really nice. I’m in North Carolina as well so watching your videos will really relate.

You've done a great job planning out your grow areas and setting up the drip irrigation. I have four 275gal totes 3 on my home and one on my shed/coop/ run. A single inch of rain fills all four totes. I have passive drip irrigation set up serving 4 major growing zones (fruit orchard/berry orchard/raised bed veg garden area and one for landscape using a utility pump and 100ft hose. I also have a several small polytunnels (16x7 and 12x7) for rotation and season extending as well as 24x10 for hydroponic growing. In the raised beds I use 1/2" feeder line with shut off at each bed and use 1/4 emitter tubing (12 in spacing on the emitters rather than the single 1/4 w/end emitter like you use. I use the spaced emitter tubing because I rotate my beds and would have different positions for single emitter line depending on crops. Just curious why you chose single 1/4 with end emitter. You inspired me with your master/slave set up for fertilizing - in a sense it's like my hydro nutrient tank but intermittently. So I've decided to run a 65 gal urn style barrel as a slave off the raised veg beds 275gal tote. With the tote the master I can run the utility pump to fill the urn if needed. Question: Do you use a timer for your system? If so what is the duration for routine watering? And, when fertilizing? I live on Tennessee Plateau and with the rains we've been getting the last few yrs that end up and late summer droughts, it seems wasteful to not collection as much rain water as possible. Look forward to your response. Thx.

Awesome channel, MG! So informative!

OMG! This is my dream garden set up! I have worked so HARD this summer of 2022, mostly dry and hot here in sw Louisiana, to have a decent crop. Daily packing water out to the plants! I did have a good harvest (mostly because I am sooo stubborn ) and I am very thankful for what I have been able to cook and preserve. That being said, I am SO doing this water irrigation setup for next spring!😁 Thank you so much for all of your very informative videos. You have helped me more than you know this summer and fall!😊

Finally getting my outside garden this year re set for drip.

Good video, irrigation is a game changer

Thank you for the careful demonstration. This will be very useful.

Best drip irrigation installation video ever!

Love drip depot! Good Video on setting up drip. This can be an intimidating topic to those just getting into installing drip! Thanks !

Great video! FYI you are actually using dripline not drip tape. Drip tape is flat and uses different mostly 5/8" connectors.

Nice job on the video, very informative.

Superb. Thank you very much. I would love to set up my drip irrigation system just likes yours with two rain barrels.

Place the irrigation tubing where you want. The sun and hot tubing isn't an issue , just set the timer to irrigate the plants at 3 am while it is cool out.

I should have done this when I set mine up this last weekend. #facepalm drilling a hole into your raised bed, of course! Thanks for the tip. I'll be modifying my setup like your's asap. Thanks again!

Good videos and good tips!

great job - extremely impressive! I've just set up thirteen 2mx1m raised garden beds in a similar fashion. What I did was use 17mm pipe as the core and run 13mm offshoots to each bed, go under the edge of the bed and up the inside edge then terminate each in a shut off valve (99% of this is underground). This is where i now differ from your setup - whereas you've used driptape?) for all you 4'x10' beds, what i have done is create a layout for each type of bed i plant out eg some arrangements might have 10 drippers or even only 4 (for say 2 zucchini plants), some might have dripline hose, some might have weeper hose for carrots (might be different to your weeper hose). Then i can move the different arrangements to different beds as i rotate my crops. I've even got an arrangement with two sprayers (which i don't leave on long) for very young carrots and beetroot. I also added an overhead misting system for late frosts. My fittings were simple push on T's and joiners so I had to add SS clamps to each joint to prevent them pulling apart under pressure esp when the pipe is soft in warm weather. I'm enjoying all your videos :)

Excellent content as usual.

Thank you this is so helpful x

Love these videos. Impatiently waiting on the container one since I need to get mine done asap

Great video! I’ve just started to connect 1/4 hoses to an orbit 8 port manifold that my contractor installed. I’m not a fan because it started to leak. My fault for over tightening. Even with a knew one water continued to come out when the timer was done. Is there a 1/2” elbow that will connect to the riser to replace the manifold. This way I can run 1/2” tubing like yours in my beds and the connect 1/4 tubes with the emitters.

MPV - thank you so much.

Very helpful! 👍

This is a great channel.

Thanks!

Outstanding drip irrigation video, so thorough, you took the time to cover every detail! ...very impressive! ...had I decided to go with drip irrigation like I almost did when I was in the planning stages of putting my garden together, this would have been the most valuable video in the world to me, however during the planning stage I aborted the drip irrigation route due to a nightmare I had the night before I committed to drip irrigation, in my nightmare the world had sustained some kind of catastrophe and I went to turn on my irrigation and nothing came out! ...for whatever reason public water had been effected to the point of being offline! ...so I had to rethink everything I had planned and convert everything over to self watering, this one change caused me to have to engineer and invent from scratch a whole new way to garden ...after several prototypes and lots of time I solved irrigation to the point to where I am now eating food that I never watered once other than the water added initially to plant the plant. I had no idea at the time that I would end up eating from the plants without ever having to water, that was just a added bonus! ...another bonus was insane bug reduction because the water comes from beneath... and lastly I was able to double the size of my garden with the time I saved not having to water or spend time on installing and maintaining drip irrigation and the time I save from fighting bugs ....all that saved time gave me so much extra time I was able to double the size of my garden ...all thanks to a nightmare! ...go figure! ...talk about win win! ...I probably spent about the same amount of money on the multiple iterations of my inventions/prototypes as I would have spent on drip irrigation but now I’ve tested and found the final successful version of my self watering plants my future costs are a fraction of what I spent and will last for years and years. ...it turns out when you let a plant water itself it will only take what it needs, it also turns out plants aren’t greedy or gluttons like some humans and will not take a drop more water than they need & when they have no traumas or bad experience related to finding water because it’s always magically there they have no water trigger or water related psychosis, this liberates them and causes them to make more roots and grow more vigorously because they no it’s ok to grow because there will never be a shortage of water, contrary to the theory that many preach, many say starve the plant from water ...traumatize the plant ...make it grow roots to find water and you will get a plant with more roots ...not the case at all! ...that’s so not true on so many levels... they have to reroute energy from the plant out of desperation to grow just enough root to find water and that root is not made of the plants best efforts because that root is made from scarcity, so it is far from optimum root, also the roots are getting water all around 360° not from just one side where the drip is, so they grow roots more evenly in all directions except up! ...water torturing ones plants to get better roots is like beating your children to get better behavior, it may yield results but doing so certainly won’t, nor will it ever, yield the best results. Oh, I almost forgot the biggest 3 bonuses... 1 you will never accidentally over water, which can lead to so many horrible things like root rot... fungus gnats or general sickness, infection, illness or less than optimal health and remember if the plant has only the water it needs there is no extra water taking up space that air would be filling ...so your plants don’t just have the perfect amount of water ...they also have the exact perfect amount of air in the root zone as well which is priceless... 2 you will save so much money and time not having to feed them as much because they loose zero nutrients...that’s right not 1 drop of nutrients is ever lost or wasted so you feed them in the beginning and then at flowering and that’s it and when you do feed you only need a fraction of the food you would normally give because none will be lost ...3 you can go out of town for weeks and come back and not only is nothing dead ...it has become an overgrown jungle! Above all the part I am most grateful for is the bug reduction, you will still have to do a little bug control during the rainy times but once the rains stop and things dry up you are done with bugs ...bugs care about food but they care about moisture more than food and they will not be attracted to your garden at all because they will sense no moisture coming from your direction as everything is bone dry except the root zone! ...so far this year I am eating already and have not touched a single plant with neem oil or any other pesticides or fungicides at all ...the only pest defense I have is me and my beneficial insects ...praying mantis ...lady bugs ...and lacewings! ...with all my extra free time I have more time to inspect and pick off anything my beneficials haven’t gotten to first. In all total, out of just under 100 plants and trees I have only hand removed bugs from one plant that I had briefly let be on the ground for a few hours one time I was called away ...so yeah folks never let your garden touch the ground without a sticky perimeter set up in A 360° circle around whatever is on the ground, nothing without wings can get to any of my garden at all! ...I’m a roofer so I use ice and water shield a super ridiculously nasty sticky stuff that comes on huge rolls... if you must put something’s on the ground clear that area of bugs first then lay a forcefield of peel and stick around ...but better off not to ever even let anything ever be on the ground in the first place... sounds impossible but you just have to be creative! ...it takes some engineering but it’s worth it when you are just strolling around looking at your untouched plants thinking to yourself damn I’m glad I took the time to do that! It takes a huge amount of time on the front end to make a garden that has no contact with the ground but after that there really is nothing else to do ...all I do in my garden nowadays is walk around taking pictures of nature and eating stuff... I literally have nothing to do at all except watch it all and eat it all! ...that’s when I get bored and go plant more stuff because there’s nothing else to do. ...now I can’t even do that because I have no more space! ...so I go on RU-vid and see what everyone else is doing! ...and I usually end up here at the end because this guy really is a badass! ...he works it so hard and he’s always taking it a step further and he never misses a single detail! ...I love this guy! ...and his crazy dog Dale! ...oh there’s a tip I want to give you MG ...I keep meaning to mention it but always forget! ...the 1st phase of my garden was to never touch the ground, this means if it doesn’t have wings it can’t touch my plant’s...the new side of my garden not even winged beasts can get to, thus totally eliminating any insects, I put my beneficial in there and they die because there’s nothing to eat because they are predators they need something to eat and there is nothing at all to eat because they are netted... I bring this up because they kind of remind me of that one covered bed you have ...here is the tip or recommendation ... put the hinges on the side not on the back and lift it from the side that way you can get way into the bed better! ...right now you have to reach all the way over to get to the things on the back if it was hinged on the side it would lift up taller and you could get to both the long sides and one of the short sides, instead of both of the short side and one of the long sides👍 ...hope that makes sense.

Thank you so much for these videos. Is there any way to put this system on a timer? We have a property out in the country that I am doing a big garden on, but I’m not going to be there but probably 2x per week, so need to water on a timer, since it’s so hot in the summer where I live. I know I have used a timer on city water, but I wasn’t sure with this set up?

Hey there, love your channel! 🙂 I missed this one last year. I gotta question, did you use poly or vinyl for your main line distribution hose? (I looked to see if I could find it in your Amazon store but no luck so I went to drip depot but unsure which to get, I liked your setup) Thank you!

Hi! I've been following your channel for some time. I like your presentations. I use raised beds exclusively in our garden and I supplement with container bags for extra space. We live in Bucks County, PA - and as a former Philly 'guy", you know our climate and soils. The garden is about 25 ft by 50 ft; multiple raised bed boxes and zones. I started with overhead watering - hated it! I replaced that system with soaker hose. The soaker seemed to work well initially but over time they have aged and clogged and split - time to upgrade to drip system. Do you find that the 1/2 inch distro pipe from the supply source delivers sufficient water volume for all your planting areas? Also, when I use your Drip Depot link, are there any other steps I must take to insure that you benefit from this affiliate? I just want to be sure you get the maximum return from your efforts! Best regards, Old John

this is the hardest way of doing irrigation. also the reason why i never had a system set up when i had raised beds. Now i no longer have raised beds, bought a hoss tools kit with drip tape that you bury in soil. So easy to set up: a main distribution line and full row length runs of the tape.

Does it make a difference how long the distribution line is to determine what size to use ?

I have a stand alone container garden and wanted to use a self filled bucket and gravity feed drip systems any inputs ?

can't find you last video on drip irrigation on your buckets the main question I have does your system really work with your rain barrels aka gravity feed I cannot find a system that says it will work by being gravity feed

… I’m just getting ready to install my Drip Depot kit … I bought the one for 6 raised beds … I actually have 8 beds and several pots that I need to water, so I plan to buy additional parts to extend the system … My beds are 4’x8’ in length and I’m thinking that I want to run the 6” spaced emitter tubing down the two outside lengths of each bed since they will tend to dry out faster than the inside of the beds and run the tubing with the 12” spaced emitters in two rows down the middle … the Texas heat really drys everything out fast ! … how is your system working for you, and what would you do differently now or recommend ?

exellent video

I am currently designing (on paper) how to install my irrigation to my beds and I am struggling. There must be an easier way. I need to decide where to place my faucet in the garden. Should it be in the middle or to one side? Any suggestions?

Nice! I'm worried about crossing my main feeder line over my cable and wires run through my yard between my spigot and beds to bury it. Will have to come up with another solution.

You are just plain awesome. Thank you! Any videos on onions? I’ve got a great crop. Huge but a few free flowers and. I heard you have to bend them prior to harvest? A tutorial on minimizing seed head forming (I know it’s stress related) and when snd how to harvest and how long to “cure”. I knew about uour figs but had no idea you had such a huge veg garden too!!! Kudos!!

I used Drip Depot as well. My first purchase was large and the shipping cost was reasonable compared to the total. When I went to buy about $20 worth of additional stuff I was disappointed that the shipping cost is a minimum of $16. They only ship FedEx. 😢 I’m going to look at alternate options for these additional pieces. So though I agree with your thoughts about not mixing suppliers I will anyway

Excellent comment on soaker/Weezer tubing...should be withdrawn from market.

Great video. I've watched several times as I've worked on my shopping list for irrigation. Did you use drip depot for the drip tape and barbs, or are the amazon links in your storefront the products that you used?

Awesome

How long do you typically let the system run to water the beds?

I noticed the products on your amazon account are not drip depot products, which do you suggest? And to clarify drip tape or drip tube run through your tomatoes, it looks more like a tube the tape.

Very informative. Do you put the holes or drips system away in the winter? I am living in zone 5. The winter is pretty cold here.

How long do you have the drip line system on your tomatoes?

What about the fruit trees how do you water those??

I'd like to try this for next summer. I have half of my plants in galvanized metal raised beds that I bought from Costco and other half in fabric pots. I'm using a watering wand every to day to water the plants. It's getting in the low 90's here and I'm thinking of watering every day. Do you recommend watering every day and what time of the day is best for watering. I've purchased Algoplus liquid fertilizer from Drip Depot and will use them for the distribution tubing and other drip irrigation parts. I'm thinking about using drip irrigation for our fruit trees, but in the meantime I keep using the Wiser Watering Wand. Looking forward to your drip-irrigation video for containers. Thanks for another great DYI video!

Another great video. I learned so much from your rain barrel install video. Just wondering, is Teflon tape wrapped around threading points not necessary?

the one thing I can't find on drip depot is the shutoff valve. Can anyone link it for me?

Look like you have a big garden, are your two 200L tanks big enough for watering the garden ?

Since the tubing goes up and in to the beds, is there any way to do this using a gravity fed rain barrel? I noticed it was set up in the last video but this pressure looks to be too much to be gravity fed.

You installed this new drip system in an existing raised bed vegetable garden. What will you do next season when you are starting out the season with transplants and seeds. What do you do at the end of the season when you are putting the raised beds to bed for the winter.

I never had good results with drip irrigation: the drops went down but did not spread out over the surface of the soil to feed the bacteria. My gardens seemed infertile. I switched to modified wicking beds and WOW! The soil is uniformly damp and I have tomato plants 6 foot high, 3' round and loaded! I still use drip sometimes to get water into my wicking beds. (I can dose upto 55 gallons with a single flip of a valve.) But I'm in Texas so maybe it's hotter/drier here.

great detailed video as usual ! BTW is your distribution tubing poly ? or something else ?

Do you have a recommendation for a timer? I'm having trouble weeding through online reviews of them

Do you think it’s okay if my drip tape is slightly buried? I put a fresh thin layer of compost on my bed and the tape is partially covered in some spots.

Have you considered using "T tape" on the long beds ?

Love the video! Curious as to how long you run your lines for?

I’ve installed the system, now how do you fertilize using the drip system?

Two questions for you. Is your entire garden watered entirely from one water spigot ? And…do you need to blow out lines for winter if you have hard freeze winters?

Any idea on how to get rid of psyllids on citrus?

Am I going crazy and overlooked it, or did you not upload a video for doing the container plants? Also, did you set up an affiliate with drip depot? I'm sure you've gotten them quite a few clicks from your videos, and if I end up going with them, I would like for you to get a slice of that pie!

Are you still planning on doing fig tree container drip install vid?

A common misconception about soaker hoses is that the water comes out at the start of the hose only and don’t get good flow all the way through. Soaker hoses are intended to be hooked up on a closed circuit of water supply and are intended to be fed through Both ends of the hoses I have hundreds of feet of soaker hose that work great because I have water feeding in on a closed circuit through both ends

Do you leave that dripping all day?

Are you still happy with the drip tape after a years use? Is there another product you would consider switching to?

Don't touch the holesaw because it's hot, huh? Wonder why you thought to mention that? THAT'S HOT!!!

Where is the third video?

What’s up wit the Ironman look?!?!

Soo many shut off hand valves! Consider using Blumats irrigation, every bed/container gets only the water in needs. It uses a mechanical device that opens each valve based on the moisture content and what moisture level you have it set to. The hose stays pressurized and water is distributed to anywhere that needs it at all times of day. No over or under watering, just perfectly moist all summer long. I just check once a week or so to make sure everything is functioning properly. I had a critter bite thru one of my lines once. Easy fix but def to check regularly. Blumats might be very slightly more costly but not by much and it's the ultimate time saver but also plants grow better in consistent moisture as opposed to too dry then too wet and repeat.

My drip tape is constantly getting clogged I hate it!

just to clarify...that is tubing not drip tape. Drip tape is more flat.

instead of hot water or hair dryer try my method

None of that works for me. To get a dripper working you need a minimum amount of pressure. For gravity systems, you need a dang column of water 35 feet in the air. So, no drippers for me. Have to use open end 1/4" tubing off a 1/2" manifold line and find a way to control the drip rate for each plant. Without resorting to spending a lot of money. Or any.

I think that is called drip tubing not drip tape. Drip tape is flat.

Ur Dale leaves u!.... Boring?