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I recently bought this soaker hose kit for a couple of garden beds. In one section of the garden I have two beds with space in between. Is it possible to connect two stretches of soaker hose with a normal garden hose in between as per the image below?

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I know that the diameter of the soaker hose (3/8) is much smaller than that of the normal garden hose (5/8), so I am worried that I would lose the pressure for the soaker hose section in Bed 2 and it wouldn't seep out any water (or considerably less than for Bed 1). Or is that irrelevant?

If it won't work, does anybody know of any other solution to connect the two beds?

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I have something like this and it works just fine. (I have only one soaker hose in each bed, and both soakers are the same size.)

The flow rate involved is very slow, so the hose and connector sizes cause no interference. The pressure will be the same throughout.

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    I will try it out according to my original diagram then and post back in a few weeks about my experience. Thank you and everyone here for your valuable input!
    – jan
    Commented Jun 12, 2020 at 15:27
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You haven't specified how long of a run each section is so if you need very fine control of water flow then install a Y-splitter with ball valves at the spigot and run a dedicated hose to each garden bed. This will eliminate the problem of uncontrollable over/under watering.

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https://www.homedepot.com/p/Melnor-4-Way-Hose-Faucet-Connection-9009/202881087

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  • Thank you for this hint! The thing is, the spigot is quite far from these two beds (I already have a Y splitter at the spigot for two other beds I'm watering). So to save up on hoses I was hoping to use the setup on the diagram. But you are right in that a splitter is the best way to control the individual waterflow to the different beds.
    – jan
    Commented Jun 12, 2020 at 15:23
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    Yes, money is always a consideration. Sometimes you can find great deals on hoses at stores such as Big Lots especially at the end of the season. You don't need anything fancy suck as a kink-free hose so if your current plan doesn't meet your expectations then keep an eye out for garden hose deals!
    – MonkeyZeus
    Commented Jun 12, 2020 at 15:41
  • Side question: I always see warnings on these faucets about not being appropriate for drinking etc. I assume there's some residual lead in the alloy? How serious a problem is this?
    – Hod
    Commented Jun 12, 2020 at 19:46
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    @Hod The Q&A section of the Home Depot link says it's all brass and safe to drink from this splitter. It's best to call the manufacturer.
    – MonkeyZeus
    Commented Jun 12, 2020 at 20:06
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soaker hoses suffer from pressure drop, and running a long garden hose between two sections is going to make that worse.

You might consider running a 3/8 plastic pipe/non-drip feeder to the left side of bed 1, then run a Y connector, and connect the soaker hose for bed 1 and the garden hose/soaker hose for bed 2. This would eliminate the un-evenness you'll likely get otherwise.

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  • You beat me to this! A flow regulator on each soaker hose (which they usually come with anyway) will also let you adjust the amount of watering in each bed independently, which the OP's "series" connection does not allow. The OP would be able to reduce the flow for bed 2 independently, but reducing the flow on the soaker hose for bed 1 would also reduce the flow to bed 2, which is probably going to be inconvenient. This may be something the OP could work with if bed 1 is much larger than bed 2, but I would still prefer your solution.
    – Graham
    Commented Jun 12, 2020 at 10:44
  • The OP's soaker hose kit comes with 2 flow regulators, so this would be quite easy. At least with my set of soaker hoses, the upstream side seems to get a bit more water than the downstream side, so I thought of this solution a few weeks ago.
    – gbronner
    Commented Jun 12, 2020 at 12:50
  • Thank you for these hints. Yes, I had thought about running a normal hose up to between the beds and then put a Y-splitter there ... but that would use up a lot more hose. As for @Graham's point, yes bed 1 is indeed much larger than bed 2 ... so I feel my original solution might still work. I'm gonna try it out, I think and change the setup if need be.
    – jan
    Commented Jun 12, 2020 at 15:15
  • Bed 1 has two lines of soaker hose, each about 15 feet, whereas Bed 2 has just one line of 10 feet.
    – jan
    Commented Jun 12, 2020 at 15:25
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    @jan 15ft of hose and a Y connector shouldn't break the bank, should it? Still, I take your point that the basic question is "could it work?" and the answer is clearly "yes", so you might as well give it a shot first. :) And if you're not happy with the result, then for very little cost you have a second option available. Happy gardening!
    – Graham
    Commented Jun 12, 2020 at 19:10

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