South Africans put lots of time and effort into gardening. We prepare the soil, select the right plants and protect them from pests and disease.
Some South Africans also spend a lot of time and energy keeping their gardens watered, and to be honest, there are few things as relaxing as standing in a lush garden, with a hose pipe in the hand, watering your pride and joy. Unfortunately many of us simply don't have the luxury of time to do this too often, and we might actually und up wasting a lot of water by hand watering the garden.
In South Africa, most areas fall in "semi-arid" climates. So, our gardens definitely need the water, but we should also do our best to conserve water. Contrary to the popular belief, a well-planned garden irrigation system can end up saving water in the garden, and will definitely save a lot of time.
With a little help from your local hardware store, and a bit of hard work, you can design and install your own irrigation system for your garden. An irrigation system is easy to install and takes the worry out of maintaining your garden all year round.
For now, we will only be looking at the types of irrigation systems from which you could choose, and depending on the response I get, I might show you how to install your own garden irrigation from start to finish.
The most common garden irrigation systems include drip feed irrigation, microspray irrigation and pop-up watering systems. All the commonly used garden irrigation systems are based on either 13mm or 19mm polyethylene tubing. Drip and microspray systems use 13mm tubing, while pop-up systems use 19mm tube. There is a wide range of fittings available from your local hardware store. So, choose the connections that will help you layout and connect the irrigation system to match your garden layout.
Drip Feed Irrigation
You can deliver the exact amount of water to individual plants, trees or shrubs in the garden, with minimal evaporation loss, using the very efficient drip feed irrigation systems available on the South African market. Some systems provide individual drip head adjustment, while other drip feed systems are pre-set.
When planning a drip system, allow one dripper for every 50cm of foliage. In sandy soils, space the drippers about 35cm apart, and for trees, form a ring around the base of the tree, with drippers feeding the area under the foliage.
Microspray Irrigation
Microspray irrigation systems are the most common home garden watering solution. Especially for flowerbeds and vegetable gardens. With spray heads available in full, quarter and half circle patterns, they can be used quite flexibly to cove the whole of an interestingly shaped flowerbed.
Selecting the correct spray pattern for each location in your garden is easy and you will find that you can reduce water wastage dramatically.
Pop-up Sprinklers
No more shifting sprinklers, or over-watering one section of the lawn, if you install pop-up sprinklers in your garden. This ideal watering system for lawns delivers water where it's needed and also saves you heaps of time.
Pop-up sprinklers are best installed in a loop pattern, which covers the entire lawn area. Using a variety of sprinkler head patterns can provide optimum sprinkler coverage for every nook and cranny of the lawn.
Choosing Garden Irrigation Systems
Use a bit of common sense when choosing your garden irrigation system. One size does not fit all here!
Pop-up sprinklers can be too forceful to use in flowerbeds. So, if you don't want to blast every leaf off your favourite rose bushes, go for a drip feed irrigation system, or the microspray option in the flowerbeds.
But drip feed irrigation systems, or microspray irrigation will not be practical for lawns. You would end up with drip feed piping on the surface of the lawn, or microspray heads sticking up permanently, like the antennae of some giant insect infestation! So, if you put a little bit of thinking into the choice of irrigation system, you'd decide on pop-up sprinklers, and everything should work out fine.
