Repairing the damaged trunk line at the Tropical Paradise

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Having an automated watering system here in the desert is absolutely essential. It gets to well over 100 degrees for several months, and trying to go out there, lugging a hose is a recipe for disaster. I've known people who've tried it, and no matter how dedicated they are, they fail. In the summertime the watering system here comes on daily for twenty minutes. And in the Phoenix area, summer starts early, and stays long!

But an automated system isn't something that you just set and forget. I inspect it every day, and a couple of days ago I found that a careful inspection wasn't necessary, there was water spraying all over the place. The trunk line had developed a leak.

When I took a look at where it was leaking, or rather spraying up into the air, I found that the entire section there really needed to be replaced. So I took a deep breath, moved some rocks out of the way, and made the decision to replace about ten feet of trunk line. Luckily, I had enough spare tubing in the garage, and of course the couplings, which work great.



The whole system is under pressure, so the connections have to be tight. I've tried doing shortcuts in the future, but have long since decided that it's much better to do the job right. So I dug down deeply, removed the old line, and replaced it with new, using the couplings. I also had to replace the sprayers, which marked with flags.

I could show you how it looked when it was all done, but there's nothing to see. It just looks like the garden, and that's the point. All of this careful engineering is hidden away, and that's part of the reason that so many people don't realize it's there. But it's there, and it works every day, keeping the garden healthy.

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