An Irrigation System for the Garden.

Happy Memorial Day! Are you enjoying this day with a veteran? Celebrating and commemorating those who fight for our country? Having a cookout with friends and family?

No matter what you're up to today, make sure to thank a veteran or service man or woman for their dedication to our country and freedom. One of my favorite childhood memories of Memorial Day was visiting the cemetery where my Grandma Carol's family was buried. I loved driving through the cemetery and seeing all of those beautiful flags perfectly lined up along the driving path.

On this Memorial Day I said goodbye to John. He's heading back to Arkansas for the week, and will return this weekend for two days to help me pack up my classroom and attend a going-away party with me.



Also, on this Memorial Day I am grading English essays and, most importantly, checking up on my work in the garden.

Let's just get something straight, friends: I should have been an engineer.

I was workin' on the irrigation system for my garden, and it was all 'beautiful mind' up in here. No joke. I just envisioned it after staring at this mess for about 20 minutes. 

The problem was with water pressure. I had a fleet of rain barrels that are full from the spring rains, but not enough gravitational water pressure to push the rain water through the tiny soaker hose holes. 

I knew that I needed to find an adapter so I could use the sump pump my dad gave me (when our basement flooded this spring) to pump the rain water from the barrels to the soaker hose with some force. After a quick trip to Menards, I had an adapter that converts a 2-inch hose into a garden hose. 

The problem now is: How can I water all three raised garden beds simultaneously from the same rain barrel and hose? At that point, I could only water one bed at a time, and had to move the sump pump hose from bed-to-bed. 

So, I bought a splitter. This little doo-dad creates, like, a fork in the hose so multiple hoses can split off from it. 

PERFECT, right?! 

And I just cut up an old hose and some 99-cent male and female ends to connect them all together.

Using a splitter to water all three raised beds at the same time also makes less work for my older sump pump, that tends to overheat when it's pushing water through a tiny garden hose.

I'm tellin' ya, this was seriously one of my best gardening ideas. Ever. 

Just drop the sump pump in the top of a rain barrel, turn it on, and look at 'er go! 

This is really going to come in handy when I am traveling this summer (with John) and need to call on the help of my neighbors to water my garden. (Except, I don't think I'll have my elderly neighbor man water the garden with the sump pump. It's kind of heavy and cumbersome to pull from the top of a rain barrel. I'll just bite the bullet and hook the hose up to the faucet on the house, so all he has to do is turn a knob.)

Either way, I'm brilliant. Just say it. 

No, no - it's ok. You don't have to say it. 

Hearing my father and husband express their pride in my ingenuity is reward enough. And hearing my neighbor, an 89-year-old navy veteran who spent two years on a ship outside Okinawa and survived Pearl Harbor, say he was impressed was also pretty cool. 

Just sayin'.