RAISED BED IRRIGATION DONE

So the first thing I did was move the hose bib to a new location. It's now along the side of the fence, so that it's in the middle of the garden beds instead of at one end (I think I owe that one to one of you who suggested that in a comment).

I utilized this item from Gardener's Supply that is called the Snip-n-Drip Soaker Hose System.  The basic kit comes with 25 feet of garden hose and 50 feet of the various connectors.  You just measure what you need, snip the hose with scissors and put a connector on one end...

...and then put the other half on the other end and screw them together.  It's really about as easy as you could want.  I had enough connectors and hoses to hook up three 4x4 beds and one 4x8 bed.  Should be enough for this first growing season.  After hooking it all up there was only one thing left to do, turn on the water and see what happens.

I turned on the water faucet at the house and then at the garden hose bib and voila, water came bubbling out of the soaker hose just like it's supposed to.  There wasn't a single leak in any of the connections and all is good!  We even had great water pressure, in fact a little too much pressure in the first raised bed, closest to the faucet.

I turned it off before too much came out because I didn't really want to waste water and  it was about to rain anyway.  Now I just need to get some hooks to keep the soaker hose in position on the surface, and then clamp the green sections to the sides of the beds.  I did them so they run down and along the ground and then back up to the next bed.  That will make it easier to walk between the beds.  Now comes the next quandary, figuring out how to  arrange them.

I am not going to do exact square foot gardening, but I do need to figure out the best way to lay the hose.  I actually thought about this shape and planting in and around it.  The spiral above I thought about using in the herb bed.  I'm putting the tomatoes in the 4x8 bed so I think that will run straight down the middle.  Hey, I guess all that matters is that we have water.  This will all be hooked up to an automatic timer so we'll see how it goes.  Now if it will just stop freezing one a week, we can get some veggies in the ground.