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Status: installed and running
A single-zone drip system is in the ground and on a timer. It went in over two batches: the raised beds and strips on Apr 27 to 30, 2026, and the berries on May 22, 2026.
It is a single-zone Rachio smart hose timer with automatic rain-skip. One timer runs the whole zone. Manual ball valves on the west branch shut individual crops down when they need to dry off.
How it is laid out
The head assembly sits on a ground cleat at the spigot on the SE corner of the deck: Y-splitter, backflow preventer, filter and 25 PSI regulator, then the Rachio timer. A half-inch trunk runs from there to a single tee on the west side of the N-S walkway, where it splits two ways.
The east branch crosses the walkway and feeds the raised beds A to G and the strawberry strip. The west branch runs south along the walkway, then west along the strip line, feeding garlic, onion, the blueberry slope, and the two caneberry rows. Everything waters on one schedule; the ball valves are only for seasonal shutoffs and manual override.
ON DRIP What the system waters
- Raised beds A, B, C, D - inline dripline
- Raised beds E, F, G - inline dripline
- Strawberry strip - inline dripline
- Garlic strip - inline dripline, own shutoff valve
- Onion strip - inline dripline, own shutoff valve
- Blueberry slope - one adjustable dripper per bush
- Raspberry and blackberry rows - inline dripline, a shutoff valve on each
- Heavy feeders - point drippers at the tomatoes, eggplant and other thirsty plants in the beds
HAND-WATERED Not on the system
- Potato grow bags and the containers east of Beds A to D - drip is planned, not yet run
- Deck pots, porch pots, the lotus barrel - hand-watered by choice, so a daily look catches problems early
- Lawn, bulb zones, trees, perennial borders, the wildflower meadow, native areas
Two things still open
Old dripline swap. Garlic, onion, raspberry and blackberry are on the 2015 Houston 12 inch dripline. Its emitters have degraded and many are clogged, so it drips slowly and unevenly. A swap to fresh 6 inch dripline is queued (see the calendar). Until that is done, hand-water those four strips.
Potato and container drip. The potato grow bags and the pots east of Beds A to D are still hand-watered. Running emitters to them is on the task list.
How the water is routed
Flow diagram of the single-zone system, from the spigot out to each crop. For the geographic version, open the Landscape Map - the blue irrigation overlay draws this same routing on the property.
[valve] marks a manual ball-valve shutoff on the west branch, used to dry a crop down at the right time (garlic and onion before harvest, the caneberries for override). The blueberry bushes have no valve - each adjustable dripper cap closes on its own.
ON DRIP Zones and how each is watered
Raised beds A, B, C, D
Inline 6 inch dripline, one loop per bed, fed from the east branch as it runs down the east side of the bed column. Even, full-bed coverage.
Raised beds E, F, G
Inline 6 inch dripline, four parallel lines running the length of the combined E-F-G bed, about a foot apart. Fed off the east branch along the north edge.
Strawberry strip
Inline 6 inch dripline at the south end of the east branch. The over-length run installed in April was cut and split back to within the line's working length.
Garlic and onion strips
Inline dripline on the west branch, each with its own ball-valve shutoff. Both are still on the old 2015 12 inch line, which is degraded - see the note below. Garlic gets shut off mid-to-late June, onion in early-to-mid July.
Blueberry slope
Three bushes, each with its own adjustable dripper on its own short branch off the west branch. No ball valve - each dripper cap closes fully on its own. Calibrate each to roughly 1 to 2 GPH in year one.
Raspberry and blackberry rows
Inline dripline along each row, each row teed off the west branch with its own ball-valve shutoff. Also on the old 12 inch line for now.
Heavy-feeder point drippers
Roughly 19 individual 1 GPH drippers supplement the thirstiest plants on top of the bed dripline: the tomatoes, the eggplant, zucchini, bitter gourd, and the Don Juan rose. Staked at the dripline, not the stem.
Known issue: the old 12 inch dripline
Garlic, onion, raspberry and blackberry run on the 2015 Houston 12 inch dripline brought from the old house. After 11 years its labyrinth emitters have scaled up with mineral deposits and dried biofilm, so it drips slowly and unevenly with many emitters fully blocked. The new 6 inch line drips fine on the same timer and pressure, which confirms it is the line, not the system.
The fix is queued as a calendar task: pull the old laterals on those four strips and re-run with fresh 6 inch line; the mainline, tees and valves all stay. Until then, hand-water those four strips.
HAND-WATERED Not yet on the system
The potato grow bags and the containers east of Beds A to D are still hand-watered. The plan is a quarter-inch feeder with a 1 GPH dripper per bag or pot, and a ball valve on the potato circuit so it can be shut off about two weeks before harvest. Parts are on hand from the April order.
Deck pots, porch pots and the lotus barrel stay hand-watered on purpose - daily watering doubles as a daily plant check, which catches trouble early on fast-drying pots.
Rachio schedule, May to October
This is the no-rain baseline programmed into the Rachio app. Rain-skip dials it down automatically on wet weeks. Raised beds drain far faster than open ground, so the system runs shorter sessions more often than typical garden advice.
Rain-skip: set the Rachio threshold to 0.10 inch, not the 0.25 inch default - vegetable roots are too shallow to benefit from light rain.
Heat wave (90F+ for 3 or more days): add an evening 15 min run at 7 PM on top of the morning baseline until the heat breaks.
Ball-valve shutoff calendar
Walk the strip and close the valve when the trigger shows up. A phone reminder at the start of the month keeps it from slipping.
Hand-watering on top of the drip
The Rachio schedule is the baseline. These cases need extra hand-watering on top of it - skipping them is the most common way a crop fails on a drip system.
- New transplants: water at the base every morning for 1 to 2 weeks. Drip cannot reach a fresh root ball until roots spread into the surrounding soil.
- Newly sown squares (carrots, radishes, lettuce, beets, cilantro): hand-water the surface daily for 1 to 2 weeks. Drip wets the root zone first and the top half-inch last, which is exactly where seeds are.
- Caneberry establishment: roughly 1.5 to 2 gallons per plant per day for the first 2 to 3 weeks after planting, until vigorous new shoots appear.
- Potato and okra grow bags: fully hand-watered for now (not yet on drip). A 10 gallon bag in summer heat wants 2 to 3 gallons a day.
- Heat wave: on top of the evening drip run, check grow bags and fast-drying pots - they may need a second watering.
Winterize before the first hard freeze
Around mid-October, after the last October run: shut the system down, drain the lines, and pull the Rachio timer and head assembly indoors. Water left in the deck-side run will split the tubing if it freezes. The system gets re-installed and leak-checked in spring.