In episode two of the Building a Garden playlist I break ground by removing my sod and tapping into the irrigation.
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Build and review of raised garden bed shown https://youtu.be/pf-O65RiDMc
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8’x2’x1.5′ Rectangle Garden Bed https://amzn.to/3UF2mHp
9’x3’x1′ Oval Raised Garden Bed https://amzn.to/496aXHJ
Hori Hori Japanese Digging Knife https://amzn.to/3wgM9y6
Ear Clamp Pincer w/clamps https://amzn.to/4bz2GxF
Phone Tripod https://amzn.to/3UHRPeI
18-Gauge Stainless Steel Brad Nails https://amzn.to/49EZPS3
14 Inch Bolt Cutters https://amzn.to/3I7zZu1
1″ Poly Pinch Clamps https://amzn.to/48wLSEK
Landscape Staples https://amzn.to/3IhdwLg
6.5ftx330ft Weed Barrier Landscape Fabric https://amzn.to/3uNjjVQ
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5 ft. x 16 ft. 6 Gauge Galvanized Utility Panel
https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/utility-panel-5-ft-x-16-ft
Hello welcome back I know in my previous video I had talked about actually starting with the burm over there and running it towards the house but after thinking about it and getting this assembled I decided that the best course of action in order to start to level
This out would be to start with this back burm so I assembled this box that will go back here so that I can get an idea of how high up I’m going to have to go um I ran a string line and it’s actually 18 in and then 20 in the
Difference just in that line from this two foot distance so I’m going to get bring the camera over here and kind of give you guys an idea of what I’m trying to accomplish okay so this will give you a better view we have our string line which is level at the
Moment um you can clearly see this that this box is going down so it’s going down the slope and if we look over here we can see that burm which is about as high as probably being level but again I don’t want to be
Level I want to be about I want to be I want it to go the grade to go down about an inch so I’m not going to go as high as that firm so what the first thing I need to do in order to get started is along the fence line
Here are sprinklers for the grass so so I need to start digging up that irrigation first and then what I’m going to do with that irrigation is actually run it into these boxes put a pressure regulator on it and then this will all be fully automated so let me get to work
Here start digging out some of this sod and the sprinklers okay so I got a little bit of the uh sod pulled back here and and the reason why I pulled the sod back is I needed to figure out where this sprinkler line was running from so I’m
Going to utilize this line so basically what I’m going to do is pull it back abandon it over on that side and then reuse it um by the way if you guys are into gardening and you don’t have a it’s called a Hy Hy this is a Japanese uh
Digging knife basically H Hy Loosely translated as dig dig this thing is one of the most useful tools I have you can use it for digging has a serrated edge here for chopping and then this is also kind of like a knife it’s not super
Sharp but you can chop a uh Branch with it it’s a really good product I’ll put a link to it um it’s one of my most useful tools that I have right now so anyways what I’m going to do is keep going back tracing this line
Back because what I want to do is basically abandon it right about in here for the moment and then what I’m going to do is run lines off of it back to this tree these trees will need to be moved they’re actually too far back so I’ll have to
Move them forward plus they have to come out of the ground anyways because of the new grading now I know some of you out there are probably screaming just cover the sod I’ve done this quite a few times and the one time I didn’t cover the sod it
Was a nightmare I mean the one time I did Cover the sod it was a nightmare it doesn’t die if you don’t take your sod out out it will grow back it’ll send out the little crab grass everywhere so my advice would always be to remove the sod I don’t care if you
Cover it with cardboard with plastic with dirt this stuff will find its way back so that’s why I always remove my sod and I would always advise everybody else to remove the sod when you’re doing this type of work all right so I got this line dug out see it comes down
Here and the line runs here I was hoping that it ran that way um what this is is the main irrigation pipe and then this is called the swing pipe so what it does is it punctures this main line right here and then that’s how the sprinkler
Works from the main line with this swing line with the swing pipe I actually don’t really like this type because it actually leaks um if you if you ran if you if you’ve ever ran one of these lines um with it exposed there is a
Little bit of a drip and I I just don’t like that so what I’m going to do this actually ended up working out perfectly because I can just cut the line right where that is and then I can run another pipe up that’ll come up here and then
That’ll be for my uh irrigation for my boxes along here and I can also tap into it for the other stuff over there I will have other lines in the middle of the lawn that I’ll use but for now I can get these boxes set up so I can start
Burying everything back here so let me go ahead and fix that and show you guys what it looks like okay now that I have the swing pipe removed I can kind of show you how this works so this is I believe it’s called a saddle this part right here and what it
Does is it straps around this pipe and then you tighten this down which then makes this Barb come out and this Barb it’s it’s got a little bit of a Sharp tip and what happens is see if I can get it here it makes a hole in this irrigation line the main
Line right here and that’s how the sprinkler is set up with this type so it actually works out pretty good for me because now I can cut that hole out and put this te in which I’ll utilize for my my irrigation okay so I put a te in I
Haven’t tightened anything down yet I just wanted to kind of show you guys how I’m actually going to get this to connect so what I did was this is where the the saddle went in what I did was I cut on one side so the hole still right
Right there and then I put this piece in this T and the reason why you dig back a little bit further is so you have room to manipulate this this pipe right here because what I have to do now is cut this and then pull all this up and then
Shove it in together and then I’ll go ahead and strap it down afterwards with these fittings right here so okay so that’s it we remov this saddle and and we replaced it with this te I would always use this type of fitting I don’t think I would ever use
This type right here anyways we got the new fitting in here we put in a t just removed this piece replaced it with the T and now let me back up and kind of show you why I’m doing it this way you look here here’s where our beds will be and
This is the line that we’re going to use for it so now that I have that sprinkler abandoned I can go ahead and start back filling now all right so that was the hole that I was actually working in so now what I’m going to do is back fill it get this
Ear irrigation line set here and then we’ll be able to tap off of this and go straight into all of these boxes right here go into the tree um and if we need to we can go into the other boxes that’ll go there so I’m going to go ahead and get this back
Filled by the way if uh you guys have any questions on anything that I’m doing um feel free to ask I actually when I was 16 years old I actually worked for a landscaping company at the time I think I made $10 an hour I thought it was completely unfair that I’m digging
Trenches and putting saw in and doing sprinkler systems and then I realized I I worked there for about a year I I loved my boss I thought thought I was a little bit underpaid but now that I’m older I realized that that was one of the most
Valuable lessons I I could have gotten because now I can do this stuff by myself I I was trained by him um I actually feel like I owe him at this point so if you guys have any questions on irrigation just feel free to ask so you’ll notice I brought in the saw
Cutter um after doing this little section I realized in order to do this whole section that I’d probably have to bring have to bring in some equipment so I got that in now I can start to get this saw rolled up all right let’s do a little walk and talk I
Just got all of this cut with the uh sod cutter um it was the first time I ever used a saw cutter and the reason why I decided to go get one is I did that little square right there and it took me about two hours and I happened to be listening to
A podcast yesterday and the guy was talking about removing a lawn and said if you don’t use a saw cutter you’re just making your job a lot more difficult so Home Depot they’re $100 that machine is $100 for four hours and it took me I have to return it at 1:00 so about
2 hours to do all of this and um for $100 so I think that it’s important to point out when you learn something new so if you guys are thinking about removing a lawn make sure that you uh get yourself a s cutter and then these
Are all in nice rolls now I can throw them in the back of my my trailer okay so that’s it for a little bit over one day got the sod removed I’ll get this stuff cleaned up a little bit more stuff over there I need to clean
Up um but just wanted to do a little recap so we got the sod removed um moved part of the irrigation so we know where that’s at there’s going to be some more in here that I’m going to track down for all the boxes um and as far as for the next
Video we will start to work this Edge right here for the the new BM coming off of there and then we will back fill some BMS along there and and start to get this leveled off and uh my original plan was to do it in sections to try and
Keep my dog off of the muddy area while I’m working on this but uh I just it’s just too much work to try and do it in sections so I’m just going full boore for this section right here um I bought this temporary fencing to keep her out
So I can put that in along here and then I can actually use that for landscaping cloth too so it won’t go to waste I’ll actually use it as a dual purpose fence and Landscaping cloth so that’s it for this video um hope you
Tune in for the next one as we start to move on and things will start to come together thank you for watching don’t forget to like And subscribe and thank you again for watching