While it's certainly possible to lay out your mainline tubing in a flat plane across your raised beds and paths, that can lead to trip hazards and strain on the tubing itself when people or tools run into them.

It's more complicated and costly to use a design like the photos, but it looks better and is less likely to snag the unwary. The mainline tubing distribution is either laying on the soil (before chips are applied) or in some cases dug down a little bit. At each bed, a 'tee' is installed pointed straight up. A very short section of tubing joins to an 'ell' to enter the bed proper. I briefly considered putting a stop cock between the 'tee' and the 'ell' to control the whole bed, but decided against it.

There is a short section of mainline tubing that runs the width of the bed along the lumber edge. It's terminated with a simple figure 8 fitting. I have pinned the tubing down with my own 'coat hangar staples' (I had made a bunch of these before buying the pre-made ones). The one advantage of my coat hanger staples over the pre made ones is mine are longer and better suited to straddling the lumber.

Connections to the drip tape or smaller tubing for pots are made directly on this short 'manifold' mainline tubing.

One nice thing about these short pieces is for repairs or modifications. When I was installing some of these, I messed up the hole for the valve assembly. It was slightly 'keyhole' shaped and leaked at the joint. I struggled with it for about ten minutes, and then I just replaced that 3 foot section of hose and started over again.

Drip Tapes, fittings

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