garden care

Surely you don’t want a garden hose running from you home to your garden 24/7.

I saw a pipe stand recently that intrigued me. These directions assume you currently have a water line running from your source to your garden. Let’s assume you already have a water connection installed to the garden.

The person who created this water pipe stand used a 3” PVC pipe, cut 3 to 4 feet long.

Depending upon the depth of your water line source, cut a slit on one side, the width of your water line (1/2” of 3/4”), according to the depth. You should have a hole dug just below the water supply line. Be careful not to break the waterline.

Make sure the water is turned off (important)  and place a 90° (ninety degree) connection at the end. 

Add an extension of PVC pipe to the desired height. I like mine about waist high so I do not have to bend over.

At the highest point, lose fit another 90° connection, unglued or without this connection, place the larger, 3” PVC pipe stand over the water pipe. Position the slit over the waterline in the hole you dug.

At this point you are wanting to measure where to cut a hole for the faucet to be connected. This should be near the top of the waist high larger PVC pipe.

Depending upon what will be extending through the hole, use a hole saw or a large drill bit, cut a hole in the 3-inch upright pipe. You can also use a grinder to cut out a square hole for the PVC pipe.

Place the slit over the supply line and press the pipe down into the ground.  Now is the time to glue the pieces of the waterline together. Note, do not glue the larger 3” PVC pipe. At the top, you will glue a short piece of waterline to the 90° connector through the hole you have drilled. To this short pipe, you will attach a faucet.

Once all of this is done, I filled the 3” PVC with available soil to provide more stiffness and to support the waterline.

If you are using a water faucet at the house, connect to brass “Y” connection. This connection can be turned off during the colder months or even disconnected.

Depending upon your planting zonal map prepared by the USDA, bury the waterline below the freeze line. If you are in a probable freeze zone, I would suggest you disconnect the waterline from the home faucet and open the faucet in the garden. You might want to consider adding a drain plug in the water line or even blow out the excess water with your air-compressor.

To complete the water stand faucet support add a PVC cap to the stand.