Budget irrigation system

[Adsibob]

@Jeremy Harris recommended a drip feed product made by Claber for irrigation of everything, except grass. On his recommendation, I bought this one  and I’ve been very happy with it. Easy to install, and easy to “edit” it when you be plant anything new, or move stuff around. Only needs 1 bar of pressure. Doesn’t come with a Timer, but I got a cheap one from Screwfix made by Titan which is perfect. 
 

For the grass, you just rig a sprinkler up to a different timer (I have two of the ones from Screwfix, I think they were 18 quid each). Then you set the timers up to run at different times so they don’t compete with each other for flow/pressure. 

[Adsibob]

On 03/07/2023 at 09:20, Nickfromwales said:

The spurs with the outlets on them all pop off so you lose the spray effect. I expect this could be managed with a pressure reducing valve, so maybe prepare to install one of those onto 2 flexis and then put that inline.

The Claber product I recommended in the previous post comes with a pressure reducing valve that you install as part of the kit, so this problem doesn’t occur. What I like in particular about the Claber system is that the pipes are tiny, only 5mm or 6mm thick, so very easy to hide.

[saveasteading]

10 hours ago, Adsibob said:

the pipes are tiny, only 5mm or 6mm thick, so very easy to hide

This is pretty standard. The pipes are also very easy to pull off the connectors. ( gardening or passing cats) Allow for occasional maintenancd and  an annual session of trimming pipe ends and flushing algae from nozzles.

[saveasteading]

11 hours ago, Adsibob said:

For the grass, you just rig a sprinkler

For the grass you just let it go brown and recover again. It always does.

I'm very happy with the new unmown area and letting the rest of the grass and other plants  ( no longer called weeds) fight it out.

The insect life likes it too.

 

I  foresee sprinklers being banned soon.  I would anyway, but I'd get Attenborough to explain why.

[puntloos]

31 minutes ago, saveasteading said:

For the grass you just let it go brown and recover again. It always does.

I'm very happy with the new unmown area and letting the rest of the grass and other plants  ( no longer called weeds) fight it out.

The insect life likes it too.

For a kid, some grass would be nice 😃 - but I do agree it would be nice to let things go

 

31 minutes ago, saveasteading said:

I  foresee sprinklers being banned soon.  I would anyway, but I'd get Attenborough to explain why.

I think for drought it might make sense not to use mains water, but for a rain collection tank you can argue differently, I imagine. 

[saveasteading]

23 minutes ago, puntloos said:

For a kid, some grass would be nice

The green bit gets mown, and the cuttings left where they fall, and is fine for kids. Doesn't need watering or weeding. In fact they prefer to see the daises, buttercups and clover, and the insects. 

[puntloos]

18 minutes ago, saveasteading said:

The green bit gets mown, and the cuttings left where they fall, and is fine for kids. Doesn't need watering or weeding. In fact they prefer to see the daises, buttercups and clover, and the insects. 

Can you send us a picture on how this looks? - my wife has certain ideas on how 'elegant' a garden should look.. 

[Adsibob]

2 hours ago, saveasteading said:

The pipes are also very easy to pull off the connectors.

This has not been my experience with the Claber system. In fact, quite the opposite. They use Push fit pipes, like most systems, but I actually find it quite stiff to put on. Doable with no tools required, but some hand strength. Once on, so difficult to get off that is easier to sacrifice a cm or so if pipe and cut the fitting off.

[saveasteading]

5 hours ago, Adsibob said:

They use Push fit pipes, like most systems,

I wonder if the water pressure is significant.  I have some on mains, and the flow varies from too little to popping the fittings, as the pressure varies.

The small pump ones come off sometimes too, but i haven't established a logic to it.

 

My claber timer didn't last a whole summer. If I recall it leaked internally. good luck with yours.

[Adsibob]

2 hours ago, saveasteading said:

I wonder if the water pressure is significant.  I have some on mains, and the flow varies from too little to popping the fittings, as the pressure varies.

The small pump ones come off sometimes too, but i haven't established a logic to it.

 

My claber timer didn't last a whole summer. If I recall it leaked internally. good luck with yours.

To be clear, the system I recommended by Claber (link above) does not come with a timer, but it does come with a pressure reducing valve, so unless you have lower pressure than 1 bar in the garden, you will consistently get 1 bar of pressure sent to the irrigation system, as that's what Claber's PRV does. The irrigation system is good for a certain number of outlets, i.e. 20. If you were to use more outlets than this, pressure/flow would reduce below what's optimal. As for timer, I am using a cheap one made by screwfix. There are dozens of timers available on the market, including many fancy ones that cost 5 to 8 times what I paid at Screwfix, which i think was about £18 or £19, though I see it's now gone up to £25.

[saveasteading]

On 24/07/2023 at 12:17, puntloos said:

Can you send us a picture on how this looks? - my wife has certain ideas on how 'elegant' a garden should look.. 

A selective shot, not the best view but one that omits personalisation/ neighbours etc

The grass was cut 2 days ago. The dips are from ancient drainage ( it dries out quickly)

The wild bit is new. It was simply allowed to grow. The only planting was some yellow rattle seeds and the apple trees , so it is not established. I cut it once a year and rake the cuttings off.

[puntloos]

One new headscratcher for me is the difference between 'leaky hose' style irrigation and proper "power" irrigation, more classic garden sprinklers that cover grass too.

 

Would you install both systems? Presumably you'll need two runs of pipe rather than use the same?

Or do grass manually (we have a small garden, not a huge chore) with a simple roll-up hose? 

[Alan Ambrose]

One problem with leaky hose is that you are never quite sure whether it's working or how much water is flowing. For pots, I've come to use the little mini adjustable sprinklers over the years - you can see what's happening and also adjust for each plant.

 

I recently installed some grown-up pop-up sprinklers in a new lawn. Fairly cheap and easy to do and very satisfying when they turn on and pop up.

 

I think the next stage is to use proper 24V valves instead of noddy water timers which seem to have a life of about 18 months even if you take them off in the winter.

 

 

[puntloos]

3 hours ago, Alan Ambrose said:

One problem with leaky hose is that you are never quite sure whether it's working or how much water is flowing. For pots, I've come to use the little mini adjustable sprinklers over the years - you can see what's happening and also adjust for each plant.

 

I recently installed some grown-up pop-up sprinklers in a new lawn. Fairly cheap and easy to do and very satisfying when they turn on and pop up.

 

I think the next stage is to use proper 24V valves instead of noddy water timers which seem to have a life of about 18 months even if you take them off in the winter.

 

 

Fair point, I can certainly imagine these leaky hoses breaking down silently and suddenly some thing dies on you without you ever knowing it was something making the leaky hose.. less leaky - ha.

But with those mini sprinklers you don't really embed them in the ground rather than you lay them on the ground, no?

 

Not that I *have to* put this in the ground but it just feels more 'solid' rather than just rolling some 'cable' around the garden.

[Alan Ambrose]

Ah there are two kinds of leaky hoses - the porous kind and the ones with little holes every n cm. I guess I've used both.

 

Suggest do as the French do and run the 2nd type above ground around the roses etc. 

[saveasteading]

I've got 6 runs in operation. 3 are on mains with timers and 3 are solar pumps from barrels. All are tube and dripper systems. All very fallible due to variously.

Tubes popping off droppers and connectors. Cats or other creatures pulling them apart. Muck in the droppers. Increased water pressure breaking the connections. Reduced water pressure so drippers not functioning. Battery failure. Valve failure.

 

An underground pipe would add to these problems, or simply hide them.

 

I leave my plants in their care when away, but wouldn't assume all will be well.

The watering can is still very well used.

 

My grass never gets watered. Doesn't need it, as I don't play croquet.

Roses and most garden plants, rven vegetables only need watering about twice p/a.

[puntloos]

Frankly it sounds like I should probably give up on burying any water "loops" in my garden and just work with overground minisprinklers or (gasp) no sprinklers at all. 

[Alan Ambrose]

>>> Frankly it sounds like I should probably give up on burying any water "loops" in my garden and just work with overground minisprinklers or (gasp) no sprinklers at all. 

 

By all means put a bunch of garden taps everywhere on proper 25mm water pipe - you can/should use black rather than blue above ground. Run this with any anti-backflow valve / pressure reducer you want and with enough shut-off valves and drain down points to be helpful.

 

You can attach one or more watertimers and mini irrigation stuff until you're happy.

 

Or maybe bury 13/14mm standard irrigation pipe with pop-ups. I preter the screw on connectors for this as they're less faff.