Hobbies And Interests
Things You'll Need
Instructions
Build a raised bed garden that fits your available area and gardening ambitions. It should be fitted with curved hoops of plastic pipe to support a shade cloth. Using electrical conduit braces, secure a 1-inch diameter plastic PVC pipe vertically to one side of your raised bed, and then bend the pipe over your bed, securing it with another conduit brace on the other side.
Determine how many feet of piping, and the number of elbows, misting heads and end caps you will need for your particular layout. You will need enough feet of pipe to lay a pipe 1 foot in from each side of the raised bed at approximately 2 feet from each other. For example, for a 6-foot-wide bed, you would have two parallel lines of pipe running down the length. For an 8-foot wide bed, you would have three lines of pipe running the length of the bed. You should do a mock layout using sticks or hoses to help you visualize how many end caps, elbows and tees you will need, and sketch a diagram of your plan.
Add 5 to 6 inches of propagation medium, or use flats filled with seed starting medium.
Lay out and trim your PVC pipe to fit the diagram you made earlier. Be sure to lay everything out where it will go before making any connections.
Drill holes in the PVC pipe every 30 inches in the top of the pipe with the drill. Use a drill that is the size recommended by the mist nozzle manufacturer.
Use PVC glue on each of the end caps, tees and elbows after you are sure of your layout.
Assemble the water lines from the source in the following order: cutoff valve, strainer or filter, 24 volt solenoid, connection to PVC lines.
Assemble the connections from the plug in the following order: 24 volt transformer, 24-hour timer, 10-minute interval timer, 24 volt solenoid.