If your little "pond" is higher than the garden,
then instead of a siphon use a pond overflow pipe.
So that as the pond fills up the excess drains into the pipe.
And from there down to your garden.

I have the opposite problem. Garden is 20 feet higher than the river.
Trying to get water pumped up from the river.

Pooh Bear

Spray nozzels and seep hoses require quite a bit of water pressure.

Seep hoses also do a much better job under the mulch rather than ontop of the mulch.

With out a pump, pressure can be created by head, or the y volume of water falling down x height or slope. In other words, a 4 inch pipe dropping 200 feet down a 35 degree slope will generate significant pressure in a half inch garden hose attached to the 4 inch pipe at the bottom, where as a half inch garden hose run the same distance will not generate any significant pressure.

On the other hand, drip irrigation requires very little pressure, just enough to lift water over any small hills in the run.

Ideally, to feed water down the slope, you will want to run 3 or 4 inch white poly pipe to the garden. You will need a filter at the top intake, and you will want a direct feed, not a siphon lift. Siphon lifts often fail to keep the siphon and a 3 or 4 inch pipe is a nasty pice of work to set up a siphon in with out a pump. You will also want to have a means, ( I suggest a gate valve just after the filter and a clean out fitting just after the pipe leaves the pond) to allow the system to be drained in the fall.

At the bottom, you will want another clean out fitting for draining the system.

To equalise the meager pressure in the system, you will want to run what is often called a manifold system.

Basically, this is a loop of half inch hose that feeds off the bottom of the larger 3 or 4 inch pipe, and reconnects back into the larger pipe. This causes water pressure to feed through both ends of the hose, equallizing the pressure in the hose, rather than having it higher at the start and lowest at the end of the hose.

The smaller the loop, with fewer emitters, the greater the equality of the pressure in the emitter hoses.

Mutliple loops can be run off the same 3 or 4 in feeder pipe to cover the garden area.

Where the quarter inch emitter hoses are attached to the loop hose, I suggest using the small screw valve fittings, as this will allow you to balance the water flow across the garden in a low pressure system and reduce the amount of water fed to drought tolerant plants, while flooding more demanding plants.

The system can be set up do that it is always on, which wastes water during wet periods, or valves can be set up in the system at the 3 or 4 inch feeder pipe to shut off water to the loops.

Small amounts of debris will clog this sort of system, so regular care and attention must be made, along with regular inspections and checks on water flow.

The emitter hoses should be placed near the bases of the plants, and pinned in place with a 4 inch or 6 inch u shaped loop of wire. I prefer used copper house hold wire as it may also confer some blight resistance to some plants. Small animals, birds, grazers, wind and even the sudden pressure change of turning on the system can cause the emitter hoses to snake and move away from the base of the plants.

Needless to say, this system is not cheap. With scrounged parts, found parts, etc, you are still looking at a couple hundred bucks worth of parts, maybe more depending on the size of the garden.

A 12v solar powered pressure system using used and scrounged parts, will cost the same, and would allow the use of several sprinklers, and so would using a rebuilt or used jet pump and dragging over the generator every two days to run it for a couple of hours.

But, this drip system can be permanent, and added on to as the garden expands, provided that there is sufficient water in the seeps and ponds,

and in the short term, with the 3 or 4 inch pipe in place, with a couple of taps and half in hoses, one can run labour intensive flood irrigation in the parts of the garden where it is difficult or too expensive this year to run emitter hoses or a manifold loop.

Thanks for your ideas!

Pooh Bear: I had thought of doing just like you mentioned, as it seems the simplest. My concerns were that I would have to get the road dug up to lay a pipe because the pond is on the other side of it...could be done just requires co-operation :^) My other concern was freezing that under ground pipe up in the winter and any valves. But I had an epiphany(?) yesterday! I could connect a pipe from the water intake that would rise up above the water level and I could drain it that way. Not sure why that hadn't occured to me before...kept thinking I would freeze pipes and valves. So it still may be an option. For any system to be permanent I should be laying a pipe under the road anyways. Thanks.

Jaybc: Thanks for laying out your ideas. A few questions. I'm not familiar with a 'gate valve'? By 'clean out fitting' do you just mean a simple fitting I can disconnect? The manifold is interesting. I can see that really being handy at the garden end to connect different hoses to different rows. I would just use a 'T' type connection for setting that up, I assume? Is an RV pump submersible or above ground? I've seen a drip system layed out with individual drippers, but that doesn't seem practical for a large vegetable garden. Do the emitter hoses you're talking about have holes in them so it could be layed out along a row of beets say? If so, any iea of a supplier? I've never come across anything like that locally. I contemplated drilling holes in a bunch of garden hose as a winter project, but that would be rather tedious! LOL.

Thanks again.

I'm definately goig to put some bigger hose at the top end. Right now its all 1".

Could you drill a hole under the road to put pipe thru?
Or drive a pipe under the road with a sledge hammer?
Depending on the road base this could be easy or hard.

Get the pipe down to where you want it first.
Make sure you have a way to drain it.
If you can open it at the bottom and just let water drain out,
then you won't have to worry about freezing in the winter.

After the pipe is getting water to where you want it,
then figure out how to distribute it.
If nothing else, store the water in a kiddie pool.

Pooh Bear

- I'm not familiar with a 'gate valve'?

a gate valve is a screw valve that raises or lowers a flat gate inside the valve against a seat,...... outside taps that you turn a wheel on top of the faucet are gate valves, they are cheaper than ball valves, less reliable, less durable, but cheaper.

- By 'clean out fitting' do you just mean a simple fitting I can disconnect?

A clean out fitting is a section of pipe, that joins two sections of pipe together, that has a threaded fitting in the side, usually at 90 degress to the fitting, with a curve. Under your sink for example, you have a trap, usually, at the bottom of the trap, there is a threaded cap that allows you to undo it and clean out hair clogs. That is a clean out fitting. Under the toilet, should be another, that allows you to open the fitting and run a snake through the pipe to clean out clogs. For an example, http://www.doityourself.com/icat/dwvflangcleanoutgard

Wrapping the threaded plug of the clean out fitting with teflon tape makes it water tight with out having to torque the cap in place. In the fall, unscrewing this cap, and opening a drain at the bottom, ( cheapest is just another PVC or CPV clean out fitting) drains the system in the fall, allowing air in and allowing the water to fall out.

White CPV is cheaper than black PVC, but more fragile, however, more UV resistant.

Serious farmers invest in steel or aluminum pipe, but for us, CPV is fine, after all, we are not planning on running a tractor over it, or irrigating 160 acres every two days.

- The manifold is interesting. I can see that really being handy at the garden end to connect different hoses to different rows. I would just use a 'T' type connection for setting that up, I assume?

Yup, you would just use a T fitting, ( best is several T fittings daisy chained together) with an end cap adapter that allows the fitting of a three quarters of an inch threaded pipe. This lets you buy a cheap tap to allow you to connect to a half inch garden hose and screw it into the fitting with teflon tape wrapped on the threads.

- Is an RV pump submersible or above ground?

RV pumps are simple in line diaphram 12v pressure pumps. They are designed to pressurise the water from poly tanks in an RV, Boat, etc and move it up to a faucet. They dont have a lot of lift, dont create a huge amount of pressure, but are relatively cheap and can run off a solar array. They do suck a lot of 12v power however, so a 30W panel, coupled to a 120 20AH battery will only let you run the pump for about 2 hours. There are some in tank models, but they are more expensive. I use one because the former tenants rigged one to run water from the cistern for the trailer, before they froze the pipes and had them burst. It was either use it to water the garden, or add it to the junk pile,.... ( 5 ten ton truck loads of junk, 12 2000lb trailer loads and several more to go, which is why we managed to buy the 40 acres cheap).

-I've seen a drip system layed out with individual drippers, but that doesn't seem practical for a large vegetable garden. Do the emitter hoses you're talking about have holes in them so it could be layed out along a row of beets say?

Emitter hoses are quarter inch hoses that are tapped into a half inch or three quarters of an inch feeder line. One can attach spray nozzels, mister nozzles, drip nozzels, etc, at the end of the emitter hose for more suitable to the plant water delivery.

If for example, you have a row of beets, what you would do is run the feeder hose down the middle of the beets, and punch in holes where the beets are on both sides of the hose.

If the beets are say two rows, 6 inches away from each other, you would punch in the holes, snap in a fitting, ( I prefer to use the valve fittings rather than simple junction fittings, a short length of hose, then a valve fitting, then another length of hose, I am Scottish after all and it is a low pressure system), add 5 inches of quarter inch emitter hose and pin it down near the bulb of the beet.

If on the other hand, you have planted your beets French intensive style, then unfortunately, you are going to need pressure and spray emitters to cover the bed.

- If so, any idea of a supplier? I've never come across anything like that locally. I contemplated drilling holes in a bunch of garden hose as a winter project, but that would be rather tedious! LOL.

Most Home Depots, Lowes, etc carry the feeder hose, emitters, etc in the underground sprinkler section. Most agricultural irrigation supply houses will also carry the stuff for cheaper if you buy in bulk. You can probably also find suppliers on the web, with a Google search for drip irrigation, even though I have not looked.

The trick is to go modular and realistic.

If the goal is a subsistance garden to feed your family fresh heathy foods, build the manifold and this year, run flood irrigation off half inch garden hoses on the existing crops. In the fall, fence the garden and over the winter, build some formal raised beds. A cheap source of wood is used pallets, line them with tarpaper and use a good wood stain inside and out. I prefer to buy bulk rough sawn 2 x 6 s from the mill,

In the early spring, install, fill and plant the raised beds, ( all equal length and width), set up proper drip irrigation with individual feeder tubes (or spray nozzels and a pressure system if French intensive ), flood irrigate the rest and just keep adding to the system until it is done. For crop rotation, as you rotate crops, you also rotate the custom drip system bed by bed.

If the goal is a truck or market garden, in which you sell the crop, then spend the money for a proper irrigation system, it is deductable against farm income, a capitol investment which is deprecable, exempt from many taxes, (Provincial, Federal, etc) when bought as such, and in many cases, also low interest financiable through grants and subsidies.

Well, thanks again Pooh Bear and jaybc(does that stand for British Columbia?). Sure appreciate your thoughts.

Well I think I've come to the conclusion that it'll be cheaper and easier to deal with gravity feed and some type of hose with holes in it (haven't searched yet, but will...). I plan to have a combination of raised beds and still keep a relatively open area for rows. So eventually I could incorporate some drip nozzles for the beds. I'll wait for the neighbor and his backhoe to wander through and we'll dig a pipe under the road with a means to drain it. Rather than drain the whole pond I'll just attach a pipe that extends above the water level to drain the lines. The clean out fittings will solve the problem of hoses air locking while draining too, as well as for the draining and actaul cleaning out if neccesary. Great.

Sure helps to talk it out and get a few opinions. I get rather overwhelmed with options sometimes!

A hand pump for a well...if the pond is above the garden, once you get the flow going it should sustain itself.

I based my suggestion on growing up without running water, but I did quickly google hand pump for well and dozens of sites popped up with more specifics.