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If you’re like us, you have some trees or shrubs in your yard that are not covered by your sprinklers or irrigation system. In our case, the problem was with 2 trees between the sidewalk and road that were never getting watered. We had 2 other trees which we got permission from the city to remove because they were dying, and they had roots that had broken up the sidewalk in search for water from our lawn area. These remaining trees were smaller and we were determined to keep them healthy and watered.
Dragging a hose over to the tree every time we wanted to water them was a pain. I looked to the web and Youtube for an answer. There were several articles and videos on creating a watering system from containers that were filled by collecting rain. I ran with that idea to create a portable watering system that I could carry from tree to tree as they needed watering. It would be a drip system so there would be no runoff, and the water would slowly drip down into the soil which would be perfect for trees.
I started looking for buckets on Amazon to use as my water container. I instead found a 5 gallon Hedpack water container. It came with a lid and I thought it would look more professional than a bucket as it sat out near the sidewalk watering the tree.
Based on the videos, I put together and purchased the parts list for the rest of the system. The Bulkhead fitting and garden hose adapter would provide a way to connect a drip hose to the container. This was the hardest part for me to understand, and it took a few Youtube videos for me to get the concept of how the bulkhead adapter fit the container. I used my power drill to make a hole for the bulkhead. I then used a wire clothes hanger to feed the inside part of the bulkhead into place. (this isn’t a problem if you just use a bucket as a container). I then screwed in the outside part of the bulkhead.
Bulkhead with hose connector
Inside view of bulkhead connector
I then screwed on the garden hose adapter to the bulkhead. I also added a shut-off coupling so that I wouldn’t lose any water as I moved the container from the faucet to the tree. It wouldn’t lose much water during this process, but it just seemed cleaner to be able to shut it off. Now the system was the equivalent to your standard garden faucet, drawing water from our container. Finally, I would add a Garden hose to 1/4 drip adapter to the end of the chain. Note that after buying my hose adapter, I saw this adapter that looks much simpler to use. It just connects using a simple barb that you push the 1/4 inch hose onto and it makes more sense. Note also that anytime you’re working with garden hose adapters, look for something that says GHT or FHT (Garden Hose Thread or Female Hose Thread). You want this instead of the NPT which is pipe threading.
All of the required pieces displayed
Any length of 1/4 drip tubing could be inserted into the connector. I added a 3 foot length with a T and two drip emitters. I thought I would use the two emitters, one on each side of the tree. You can change this up to suit your needs. As always, I tried each part to make sure it all fit together before putting it all together.
Final container with two drip emitters
I connected all of the parts together and everything worked fine. I had a slight leak between a couple of the hand tightened parts but when I tightened them further, the leak stopped. I did also notice that the water did not flow out the drip line if I had the cap on. That made sense since the system needed air to be able to release the water. I took the container to one of my trees and both drippers started emitting water. It took several hours for the container to drain. As expected, the water came out so slowly that there was no runoff so the water was able to soak into the spot next to the tree.
Successfully watering the tree
All of these parts were simple to find at Amazon or Home Depot. A bucket would have worked just as well but the container looked better sitting out on the side walk and the molded plastic handle made it much easier to carry. The 5 gallon container was the perfect size and anything larger would have made it too heavy to carry out to the tree.
Video References
Here are some reference videos that we used to make our watering container
This video is very close to what I built. Good tip on putting the bulkhead in through a small opening
In this video they just attach a hose barb to the bulkhead. That solution works too
