We believe the last cool spell has passed, so it’s time to get some of these warm-season crops planted in the backyard garden. But first, we’ll share our planting schedule and the order in which we’ll be planting things like tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, watermelons, pumpkins, peas, and more.
We’ll discuss whether you should plant your rows in a certain direction — north to south or west to east. Does it matter if your backyard garden is in direct sun most of the day? Does it matter if your backyard garden has partial shade?
We’ll also talk about the basic components of a drip irrigation system and show you how to setup the mainline or supply line for a backyard gardening irrigation system.
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50 Comments
Another great video. If you are using a hose to water all the plots and moving the hose from plot to plot, how much water time are you giving each plot and how often. Here in central Florida we have sandy soil and of course the water runs right through. – Thanks Jeff
Hey y'all, That was a mouthful there. Lotsa great drip info. I liked seein how you have yours set up I had not seen that before. I was thinkin on that directional planting and in my case everything is very broken up spread out disjointed not at all straight and tidy like yours. I just try to go by which plants are taller and make sure that the ones that cast shadows cast them away form the other plants rather than put them in shade. Now I do however put some plants that can't take the late day sun and I'll plant something just the right height to give it shade at the end of the day. That comes from writing down notes everyday in the note books. I try to write the good and the bad. Ideas and plans for next time. Really helps to read through the notebooks in the winter time. Take care y'all bye for now
Thank you Travis you're awesome, onions look great
I swear by drip irrigation. I have a splitter on my hose bibb with one side going to a 4-station timer for the raised beds and the other to a hose reel for hand watering and misc use. Each station serves multiple beds with each bed having a valve for shut off or throttling. The beds are zoned based on sun exposure. My beds are laid out both north-south and east-west based on convenience and what worked in my small yard.
With as many separate plots as you have, this might not be so convenient, but my main garden is in one contiguous plot. It's about as large as two of your dream garden plots, only in one piece. I installed a "Y" with two built-in shut-off valves at the water hydrant, so that I could run one dedicated hose for the drip irrigation, while leaving the other side of the "Y" for whatever we might want to do. The drip irrigation hose is laying where we don't mow, so it can stay down all season long. Then, I installed an automatic hose timer on one side of the "Y", feeding the dedicated drip irrigation hose. That hose goes to the filter and regulator at the center of one side, where I do all the same things you showed. The timer is set to start about 30 minutes before sunrise, and again about 30 minutes before sunset. Each of these run-time periods is adjusted as needed, depending on the wetness/dryness of the season. We just observe the soil moisture, and adjust the run-time about once a week, sometimes less often. Most of last summer, the water ran 15 minutes or less each run-time. The hose timers are available anywhere hoses and sprinklers are sold, in-store or online. You can go simple, for $10 (well, that might be $25 THIS year), on up to as much as you want to spend for the "smart" ones you can operate from your cell phone.
I always enjoy your videos! Good information.
Travis what of the summer crops can we direct sow, I know beans are one of them. Although I have always transplanted beans but my hubby wanted to direct sow them this year. Like I've got some cucumber transplants but can I direct sow some?
Good morning Travis, thanks for reminding me, I still have to set up the last section of my irrigation. I was looking at your arch trellis and thinking how cool it would be to put a couple of indeterminate tomato plants on it, visualize it…😀
Onions kind of look like mine. This last frost nip them pretty good but it looks like they made it through. Looks like a bunch of long-haired hippies with their hair going everywhere 🤣
the road is ? of the property and runs ? to ?
You should try quick connect hose ends. Don’t have to screw hose off and on and fix drips. I have them on all my hoses and never have drips. Cheap and makes hose connections fast. Have had mine over 5 years trouble free. Amazon
How would drip line be setup for raised beds?
When you plant your cucumbers on the arch trellis do you plant anything in the center of the arch? Or is that where you put the cucumbers?
I'm very pleased with the service and pricing I get online from Drip Depot. I've got seven different drip zones. Raised beds, greenhouse, tomato venue, etc. Buy lots of extra goof plugs. At the end of the garden hose, I use one portable master head assembly which also has a brass valve, a backflow preventer, and a timer on the input end and a female brass snap fitting at the output end. Use a male snap fitting at the input of each zone. Snap on the head assembly, set the timer, turn on the flow. Come back later to move it to the next zone in rotation. Be sure to use Teflon tape and wrenches to fabricate that head assembly. Big fun. Even listening to the scope of your ambitions leaves me exhausted.
Another great video.
I appreciate the drip tape information…we need to update from our dragging the hose around method !
Also a question. When did you start your tomatoes ?
I am in zone 8B southeastern Texas. I thought I was doing good starting tomatoes in the middle of February … but our plants are not as mature as yours.
I use drip irrigation exclusively on my market garden. Starting 3rd year. Travis has always been a good source of information on this. I am planting Watermelons and Pumpkins over the clover field without cutting the clover. This is a new technique I am trying this year.
If you do overhead watering and drip line watering, another way to save a lot of money would be to use a hose splitter at your spigot. That way what side goes to drip line and the other side can be used at full flow for sprinklers
I don't see the purpose of determinate tomatoes.
I like tomatoes all summer long not a whole bunch all at once. And if you plant enough indeterminate you have enough tomatoes in just a few days to do a weekly canning batch.
I think I'm late in planting my seeds. But I can't set them out til may…mid may. Early may is kinda pushing it.
Really excited for my orangeglo watermelon too. Supposed to be the best orange watermelon available
I enjoyed watching that! I run my rows whichever way is convenient to fit my garden space. My garden is small enough for me to hand water, even in a small garden that takes some time, I can really understand why you use the drip tape in a large garden! I was just wondering if you are too far south to grow asparagus? It’s a wonderful spring treat and I bet your boys could sell loads at the roadside!
Klaus
planting direction has more to do with plant growing heights and shading out other crops rather then which direction your mono crop rows point
I gotta fight of root knot nematodes in one of my plots. Do mustards in general help or does it have to be the broadleaf ones.
Direction can matter if your garden is on a slope or somewhat on a slope, then you would want to put the drip lines going longways, like you would if you were terracing going down the hill or i.e., example, let's say the drip line on an east slope that's hill goes down lower to the west, then you would want to put the drip lines running north to south, and the position of the pressure nozzle would be placed at the top of hill with the mainline tubing running east to west to connect each row, it allows the water from up top to slowly drain down from row to row, if the driplines were straight downhill, then the water pressure in the lines would put forth to much pressure at the bottom of those row emitters of the line and not as much from the top of the lines emitters going down! Hope this make sense!
Travis have you ever try a andrews hose? Look it up! You can make it any length you want and it really puts water out fast
The only time I consider planting direction is in winter. With the sun lower to the south, I plant in such a way that the plants get a decent amount of sun. In the summer time, I plant where more tender veg (lettuce) is on the east side of larger plants so they get afternoon shade. I also use the shadow of trees to determine planting to create different microclimates.
Great vid Travis. Regarding plant direction, I think the only time that comes into play is when you plant something like corn next to a shorter growing vegetable. If you plant North to South in that scenario, the corn will eventually shade out the morning and noon sun to the lower plants. Planting East to West eliminates that issue. I made this mistake one year when I planted corn next to peppers in N/S rows and the peppers did not do well. Keep up the great work and can’t wait for Friday’s video!!
I just position mine to best survive a strong wind.last summer my 12ft tall tomato plants made it through a 70mph wind. Thanks to positioning,Florida weave and Jesus. Till next time mustache!!! God bless
Thanks
I haven't found planting direction to make a difference for plant growth. It does make a difference in convenience for the gardener. Do what is easiest for you. I need to get a drip kit for my garden.
Can you buy drip tape that has the emitters 18” apart rather than 12”?
Our row direction is pretty much determined by the slope of the land, as we're just off the crest of a rise in the land, so we run our rows perpendicular to the slope so we end up with about the same amount of water at both ends of the rows. (In our case that's north-south.) It's a semi-arid climate and sandy soil, so too much drainage tends to be more of a problem than not enough.
Travis, where would u reccomend i get drip tape and gilter regulator kit? Thanks
I'm in Ariz. in the summer here it's not good to plant west to east and less you shade blocking the late afternoon sun. If you don't have west shade it's great for winter planting and of course it depends on what you're planting
For those that dont have super flat land , row direction matters when you want to consider how water moves. For me i want enough to drain the water well on heavy rains . On another note "keyline design" is a interesting land approach to management of water on larger systems.
Our land is situated where it is on a slight incline. Therefore, when a heavy rain comes, it tends to wash out the garden. We make our rows in the direction of the runoff so that the water goes between the rows. Y'all will probably get the rain that just came from us in south MS. Hope y'all have a great day.
Did you decide not to plant Ali Baba? Have heard to mention when you planted Watermelon.
The sun is to the south as it passes east to west so I don't see as it makes much difference to my garden. However I do plant my muscadines north to south so they get even sun throughout the day. I also try to plant taller crops so they don't shade out shorter crops unless I need the shade for a less sun tolerant crop
Hey Travis, I have a question off the subject. My onions are looking phenomenal this year as I have followed your guidelines. I noticed some seed heads forming on a few of the red onions, should I do anything or is that normal. I appreciate the help you provide. Thanks
Always something good from Travis.
Direction matters when it comes to location and what you're growing. For example, it gets really hot here like it does where you live. Many of my vegetables here will wilt and stress if they get direct sun all day long as I have so much direct sun daily. I have found that using the plants to shade others as the sun passes over throughout the day will give much needed relief which improves growth over the long run. Staked tomatoes can shade other tomatoes or any other troubled crop. Essentially, any tall crop (trellised or otherwise) will provide shade which is beneficial to all other crops in really sunny, high heat areas.
Hey Travis. I
My garden plot has around 10 Deg fall north to south. I always plant east to west, because if the fall.
This year I've completely covered the plot in woven ground cover.
Ready to transplant brassica tomorrow, but there's bad storms for mid week might hold off.
I plant any way I want aside from where taller plants like corn would shade others out.
Wind direction affects us. Our storms roll in from the N/NW and the worst winds are from that direction. Our corn, planted in N/S long blocks survived the wind coming from the W and stayed standing. Same for okra, sunflowers and other tall crops not trellised. The corn, okra, sunflowers, etc planted in E/W blocks was flattened and damaged badly by the N winds. However the trellised beans planted E/W produced double or more than the N/S trellised beans. Tomatoes (trellises or not), greens, brassicas, onions & other root or low growing crops, we didn't notice a difference.
That is one fat lab lol looks like she rules the roost.
Man you look ridiculous with that mustache and chin spinach .
That "cool spell" down there was a hard freeze up here in the foothills of SC. It got down to 20 and the top inch of the soil froze. I had just planted lettuce, carrots, and beets seed a few days before. I covered the rows with boards, tarps, plastic, etc., that prevented the ground from freezing. I had slow germination but I got a good stand. I had onion transplants in the ground so I covered them with a makeshift small tunnel. The interesting thing is that it killed about half of my apple trees' fruit buds. I've never experienced that before. The trees were at bud swell. My pears and peaches were at a more advanced stage of bloom and suffered less damage than the apples. I lost about 80% of my plums though. I won't have much work thinning this year, except for the pears, they're loaded.
In regards to row orientation, I envy your flat ground. I have to orient my rows against the slight slope to prevent wash outs. I also dig drainage ditches around the perimeter of my garden. The ditches also help keep voles out of the garden. So in this area it's best to have your garden on a South facing slope, as they generally warm up faster than North facing slopes in the Spring.
That watermelon plot sure has some nice dark soil in it!
Planting direction will not matter much unless you're alternating closely spaced rows of tall and short crops. If you do that, then you may run into a scenario, if you plant with rows running east-west, where at certain times of year (spring and fall) short plants are shaded all day long (rather than half the day, which is possible with north-south rows). The reason this could happen is because in the north of the tropics the sun is always south of a line running from due east to due west, which means that shadows always point slightly north of a due east to due west line. This issue is much the same as having a tree on the south side of your garden, though less likely to be a problem and less severe. The further north you are, the more potential there is for the problem. If you know some basic trigonometry, you can do a little math (involving the tangent function) to estimate based on the height of your plants, your latitude, and your row spacing what could happen. Or you can just not mix tall and short crops and make sure your rows are spaced decently to avoid the issue.
Did you build the chicken tractor.
Mine is what it is…
Oh how i wish i was younger with land again…all thr cool things they have these days..i remember as s child…the well and bucket method of watering in drought..and still do it to an extent because im not wasting the water from the dog pool….or air conditioner drip…heck even cleaning the dog water bowl water gets used.