Garden Watering Systems

Good reasons to consider using an automatic garden watering system: -

When it comes to watering your plants then whilst it is worth noting that plant over watering is actually the biggest killer of most plants, equally so failure to water your plants often enough will also result in them dying.

Whilst it is possible to bring a wilting plant back to life with careful watering, do not expect to go on holiday for a week in the middle of Summer and come back to find your tomato plants look healthy, with no water they will be dead in 2-5 days depending on how hot it is.

Many people leave such busy lives these days that it is all too easy to get back from work late, decide to eat out instead of cooking at home, get back late and forget to water your vegetables. Or only remember when it is dark, and with no outside lights you cannot see to water your plants. Do this 2 or 3 days in a row in Summer and you can wake up at the weekend to find all your plants at best heavily wilting. Plants heavy with fruit such as tomatoes or cucumbers will need watering up to twice daily.

So if this sounds like you or you are often away during the week with no one to water your plants whilst you are away then why not buy an automatic watering system. They now come in many forms for all types of garden, even if you just have a container garden there is a system to suit you, and they do not all cost a lot of money.

At their most basic there are gravity fed watering systems such as the ‘Big drippa’ type, which consist of a tough plastic bag that can be filled with water and hung on a fence or a wall. Small bore tubing comes out of the bottom of the bag and feeds ‘drippas’ which have adjustable water nozzles allowing the water to be drip fed on to the root of the plants, precisely controlled and at an adjustable rate. These systems can provide water for 24-72 hours depending on the drip rate you set.

There are also tray based systems that have capillary matting in the bottom of them that is fed from a large water reservoir and some of these systems can water plants for up to a week.

There are moisture retaining gels and crystals that can be added in to the soil to help retain moisture, but these may not be suitable for everyone’s personal circumstances to use.

Then at the higher end of things there are watering systems that can be connected to your outside tap, they feature the use of small bore tubing to take the water all around your vegetable patch or allotment, and can use adjustable drippers, spray heads or a combination of the two to deliver the water to your plants.

These systems are great as you can feed them with endless tap water and they deliver water just where it is needed and are far more efficient than just using a hosepipe and the fact that you can use them with spray heads and/or drippers mean they can be adjusted for watering every type of vegetable.

Then there are fully automatic watering systems that are connected to your tap the same as above, but feature a seven day timer that allows you to set when you want your plants watering and for how long. I have used one of these for years and they will reward your investment in them by dramatically increasing the yield of your vegetable patch.

An automatic watering system never forgets to turn itself on and being battery powered is not even affected by a power cut.

So before you get this year vegetable crop underway then have a look at automatic plant watering systems.

By Richard Allen -