subject: Micro Irrigation [print this page] Fed up of unsightly trailing hoses or the rigmarole of packing everything away once the garden has been watered? No longer enamoured of tripping over the hosepipe rack in a dark shed, or turning the light on to discover the hose that looked like it was properly drained has just leaked half a gallon of mouldy water all over the floor? Theres a solution: micro irrigation.
Micro irrigation works by burying all the pipes necessary for garden watering, feeding discrete sets of nozzles by tubes rising to the surface of the ground. A main feeder pipe runs under the garden, sending capillary pipes to specified areas, where they dispense water through bespoke attachments. These attachments include: sprinklers, drip nozzles, hose nozzles, fan sprays and rotating water jets. All of which are designed to maximise water efficiency (micro irrigations main purpose, aside from tidying the garden, is to reduce water wastage) by targeting exact parts of the garden and types of watering.
Micro irrigation can be as simple as a few tubes run into the root ball of a hanging basket, or as complex as a fully programmable network whose highways and byways can be opened and shut according to the dictates of multiple routines. These more complicated micro irrigation systems allow gardeners to care for large gardens without exorbitant water waste: and to target each part of those bigger areas with the precise level and frequency of irrigation it needs. So a micro irrigation system in a garden with beds, borders and a greenhouse might be programmed for one all over daily water; plus one extra border watering and three more greenhouse sprays. A micro irrigation system like this can be set from a digital control panel and will keep running its routines until told to stop.
Simple micro irrigation systems are affordable, easy to set up and an extraordinary source of saving, both money wise and environmentally. Even the most straightforward micro irrigation system makes significant dents in the amount of water used by the garden its installed in.
With such ease of setup theres no reason not to: on the one hand, you have a profligate garden whose watering doesnt make a great deal of difference to the quality of the plants; whilst on the other, youve got an eco friendly outdoor area where every drop counts and nothing looks out of place. In a century where our use of natural resources is becoming an ever-increasing problem, thats a nice thing to know.
