I am into T-tape

I was very excited on Friday when a package arrived. Inside I found rolls of tubing, couplers with valves, t-fittings, adapters, u-stakes and, best of all, t-tape. This was what I ordered to set up a drip irriagtion system in our newest vegetable bed.

Drip irrigation is great. You don’t use as much water, you water your plants, not the weeds and it saves time and labor (especially with an automatic system). Last fall I went to a workshop on irrigation and heard about a drip irrigation product called t-tape. It sounded like it would work well for our vegetable bed set-up and I wanted to give it a try. This new bed gave me the perfect opportunity to see how it would work.

This is what I have been waiting for! I can easily turn the water on and off individual rows of vegetables.

I ordered all the supplies from a company called DripWorks. In just a few days, the box arrived and I dug in. I can get a little geeky about these kind of things . . . a neighbor stopped by to chat on Friday and asked about how we water. As I told her about the drip system we have in place in most of the beds, I had to show her all my new stuff. When I got excited about this particular fitting: a connection between the main water line and the t-tape line that has a valve, she asked if I was really into garden gadgets. I am, I guess, when a gadget can do something I have been wanting to do, which is the case with this valve connection. Now I can turn off the water on individual rows of vegetables, without making changes in the set of irrigation lines. So convenient!

T-tape ready to irrigate the beans.

Saturday, Steven and I set up part of the system. Of course, there were a few bugs, so it wasn’t until Monday that it was completed. (Steven is taking a few days off this week again. Yeah!) And it works! The tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, and beans are set for water.

Now I will watch and see how it does. If it works well, I wil slowly convert the rest of the garden to this type of drip irrigation. An affordable system with valves: I love it!