Irrigating raised bed garden with pond water.

[Topkicker]

I'm building the wife a raised bed garden about 70 feet from the edge of our 1/2 acre pond. What type of pump setup can I use to connect a garden hose to? I dont need to transfer alot of water. The garden is only 12ft by 4ft. I just need a simple setup that will allow her to water it with a standard hose fitting. Thanks in advance.

 

[OzGrasshopper]

whats the height difference between the bed & pond, what is ur preference to use windmill, solar pump or electric pump? cheers OzGH

 

[DAY]

Harbor freight has some cheap pumps that will do the job.

An even cheaper solution for a 12x4 plot next to the pond is this: Put a rock/ cement block/whatever ten feet off shore, and a 2x12x12' on it. Walk out and dip a 5 gal bucket in the pond. Repeat as necessary.

 

[20 20]

I use an old house pump {shallow well} I water the garden the lawn and wash my vehicles and equipment.

 

[Topkicker]

whats the height difference between the bed & pond, what is ur preference to use windmill, solar pump or electric pump? cheers OzGH

The pond is about 3 feet down grade from where the garden will be. Electric or even a gas powered option would be fine.

 

[Topkicker]

Harbor freight has some cheap pumps that will do the job.

An even cheaper solution for a 12x4 plot next to the pond is this: Put a rock/ cement block/whatever ten feet off shore, and a 2x12x12' on it. Walk out and dip a 5 gal bucket in the pond. Repeat as necessary.

I got plenty of 5 gal buckets. The problem is the wife's back. She's had sugery and just trying to come up with a simple solution that she can operate while I'm at work.

 

[boggen]

for temp doings during spring / summer for that small of a garden. i would skip any well pump. and just go with a "trash pump" you can pick them up at most local hardware stores for 30 to 100 bucks. many times they might be advertised as submersible sump pumps. like pumps you might have in a basement to help keep your basement dry. you can also get submersible pond pump, for liner ponds. but truth be told, you most likely better off with a trash pump just to make things cheaper. and trash pumps can handle some solids like a leaf or twig without clogging, unlike a submersible pond pump.

your problem will be, getting the pump out far enough, from any sort of vegetation that might be along your shore line. and keeping it up out of the mud.

my suggestion would make a light weight float with light weight handle on it. that you can zip tie a garden hose and trash pump to.

see diagram....

you need 2 handles. to keep the pump from floating / swinging back into the shore line. and ability to put long enough handles on it. if need be to get over any shore and change in water level of pond. so if needed get some male/female adapters and buy a couple more 10 feet sections of pipe.

some times trash pumps do not have a very long cord. and you do not want the extension cord and connection into trash pump cord getting into the lake. so make the connection above the float. and zip tie them down to the top of it.

the hole in center does not need to be that big. just large enough to get a garden hose and electrical plug through. ((note: you might want to shave some of the foam out. so the garden hose does not pinch on you)) but kinda has a soft easy curve to it.

it should be light enough. that if need be you can pull it into shore, and if need be unclog the pump. and when done for garden pick it up and toss it into the shed. or pull the pump out and toss it back into the pond.

you will most likely need to drive a couple posts or something near shore line to rope off the handles.

================
trying to toss even a small trash pump with garden hose attached and say 10 feet of cord out into the pond deep enough, and not sunk down into the mud. is a rather tiresome painful job, it can be done. it is just a pain to do so though. and every time you use it, it always seem you have to pull it back in and try to toss it back out just to get the pump to set right in the pond.

hence, a small float with handles. that will allow you to push the pump out far enough from shore line, to get descent water that is less likely to have any water weeds or water vegitation in it. and keep the pump off of the muddy bottom.

 

[boggen]

you can do a well pump, or utility pump ((is meant to be kept on dry land, and sheltered most likely from the elements rain/snow/etc..)), with this, you would most likely need a float, an anchor with chains (not rope). a well screen or foot screen. to run a hose out into the pond. and keep the end of the hose up and out of the mud. and also keep the end from trying to rise up to the surface of the water.

this would be a more permanent setup. it has it con's and pro's. and would be better off setup were you had "water garden hydrants" with pipe ran around your property underground. so you could water multi things with the pond water. i say above due to you are most likely looking at a much higher cost for a pump, and dealing with float, anchor, chains, foot screen. etc.... and if you pay that much, you might as well go the extra for pipe in the ground and some different hydrants around property. to make it easy to attach garden hoses were ever you want to.

 

[LD1]

A submersible pump will work as long as you keep it out of the muck.

And another thing to keep in mind is the type of pump.

There are two main types, centrifigual and positive displacement.

Centrifiguals will generate pleanty of volume but lack the ability to build pressure. Positive disp. will generate the pressure.

So it depends on what you plan on watering with. If you use a nozzle, a centrifigual isnt going to perform very well but will do okay with just an open-ended hose.

Positive displacements build the pressure to work with a nozzle, but you dont want to have them running long with the nozzle off because they will be building pressure constantly and eventually burn up.

I have a 2000GPH fountain pump in an ornamental pond. It flows about twice the volume as my city water out of a 3/4" hose, BUT doesnt build much pressure. So using a nozzle is pitiful and it doesn't develop much head either, so pumping uphill is limited.

I also have a submersible cast-iron centrifigual pump for emptying my rain barrels to water trees. 2" discharge reduced down to 3/4" garden hose fitting. It flows very well, but again, doesn't work well with a nozzle because of lack of pressure.

So bottom line, if you want to use a nozzle, you need a positive displacement pump, but cant run it for long periods with the nozzle off (like stopping watering to pull weeds for 5-10min with the pump still running).

If no nozzle is required, centrifigual will work just fine, and use a shutoff valve on the end. It wont hurt a centrifigual pump to keep running even if the water has no where to go like it would a pos. disp.

 

[20 20]

My pump is the cheaper HF one with pressure tank{under $100.00}. I dug and placed a pipe{4"} that goes down then out into a small barrel{15gal} filled with rocks{holes drilled to let it fill with water}. This filters the water so it does not plug the foot valve on the pump. Then I placed the 1 suction pipe with foot valve into the pipe and connected to the pump. The nice thing about this setup is that it is out of the way and can just be used whenever without having to chase around for extension cords etc... The pump I used was sealed so I left it out in the elements last year, this year I want to build a small pump house and make it purty