[Community_garden] Fire Hydrant Drip Tape

[Gregory Strella]

Thanks everyone for your feedback,

Baltimore doesn't require us to use a water meter and, as far as I can tell,
there is no overflow mechanism in this connection.  I'm not sure what this
means in terms of our ability to control pressure, but, I don't expect we
will have to worry about wasting water.  I'm glad to hear water holding
barrels/tanks are suggested with drip irrigation.  We have seven clean,
plastic 55 gal drums ready for action, but we weren't confident that they
could support drip irrigation either until receiving your input.

The drip tape arrived in the mail today.  I'm going to pass on this
information to the other gardeners and we will probably begin attempting to
run the drip tape from the hydrant this week or early next.  If we have
difficulty, I think your suggestions give us a lot of variations on this
theme that we can confidently pursue to end our watering woes.

I will post a synopsis of our experience in a couple of weeks and let you
know whether we opt for a rainbarrel intermediary between the hydrant and
our irrigation.  More responses are certainly welcome in the mean time.

Thanks again,

Greg Strella
The Madeira Gardens
The 400 block of N. Madeira St.
Baltimore, MD 21205



On 8/8/07, Fred Conrad <fred.conrad at acfb.org> wrote:
>
> Greg,
> Here in Atlanta we have to use an expensive water meter when we take
> water from a hydrant.  I can't think of a time we used it with drip
> because we can't leave the meter unattended for even  a brief period of
> time so we're usually hand watering or attaching multiple overhead
> sprinklers to make the best time.
>
> One thing about the hydrants here - they are made to put out fires and
> that means being open full blast.  If you run them at a trickle you lose
> hundreds of gallons of water down the street that bubbles up from the
> valve under the hydrant.  I can't stand the waste.
>
> fgc
> Fred Conrad
> Community Garden Coordinator
> Atlanta Community Food Bank
> 732 Joseph E Lowery Blvd, NW, Atlanta, GA 30318
> ph: 678.553.5932 fx: 678.553.5933
> fred.conrad at acfb.org    <http://www.acfb.org>
> Our mission is to fight hunger by engaging, educating and empowering our
> community.
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: community_garden-bounces at list.communitygarden.org
> [mailto:community_garden-bounces at list.communitygarden.org] On Behalf Of
> Gregory Strella
> Sent: Tuesday, August 07, 2007 7:23 PM
> To: community_garden at list.communitygarden.org
> Subject: [Community_garden] Fire Hydrant Drip Tape
>
> Does anyone have any experience hooking a drip irrigation system up to a
> public fire-hydrant?  We are planning on setting up a system of drip
> lines and feeding it from a fire hydrant that is 200-300 feet from the
> garden.  To hook up to the hydrant we will use a 1" garden hose and a
> brass converter - purchased from Baltimore City - that will marry our 1"
> hose to the approximately 4" wide opening of the hydrant.  We have
> ordered 450 ft of tape, a bunch of connections and a stock 10-PSI
> pressure regulator.  Also, the garden is on level ground.  We are
> distressed enough with our current watering scheme that we are willing
> to spend a little bit of extra money to regulate the pressure if it is
> necessary/possible!
>
> Thanks for all of your thoughtful discussion,
>
> Greg Strella
> The Madeira Gardens
> The 400 block of N. Madeira St.
> Baltimore, MD 21205
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