Here is a post on how I recently set up a garden watering system. This is so that I don’t need to water my plants all the time. Another main reason I set an automatic watering system is that when we go away the plants get watered. While the setup may seem a bit steep/ expensive to some. Living in London means your neighbours may not be at home all the time. London is a very transient city where people and families come and go all the time. Rather than depending on your neighbours and friends goodwill I use a garden watering system. It can be automatic or manual setup.
Before using this Hozelock system when we go away I just use homemade drip and osmosis system. That setup cost next to nothing but it’s not for a long term permanent use.
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Homemade (DIY) system
For that watering system, I just use old plastic milk 2 litre bottles where I just make a few holes and stick it on the ground. Established plants don’t require as much watering as young plants.
Another method I use for young seedlings when I go away is that use an osmosis system setup. It is very cheap to set up and doesn’t need much equipment. All you need is an old few cotton flannel towels (cut into strips) or some sturdy thick kitchen towels. Also a bowl of water. By using the way of the height of the bowl of water is placed the water moves from one to end another magic!! So the height placement of the bowl of water is very important.
Hozelock watering system
The last one is my current watering system in which is by Hozelock. This system is a much more permanent fixture as it comes with hoses and sprinklers that you adjust. If you have a fair size garden you will need a few sets of the universal system pack. This adds up to the cost of the initial set up. There are also a few other big brands in the market so do shop around. Most of them are nearly the same just what is available in your local garden supply shop. I bought the Hozelock universal kit as it was the only brand that was on the shelf in my local garden centre which is Homebase. But later found out that I need a few other bits that are not in the kit. So it means paying for delivery or just going into my local shop and buy it.
I wrote a blog post about just the watering system itself. Here the link to it Set up an automatic watering system
Therefore the purpose of this post is an extension of using and setting the watering system in the garden. The instructions provided by Hozelock is clear as mud. However, if you have a large garden with only one water hose pipe it is impossible to water all of the plants in the garden using an automatic system. It is also not possible to use the water timer with water from the water butt. As the pressure is not high enough. I have spent hours and days trying to find a solution but there was none whatsoever last year. However, the technology is also being updated and improving so while it’s not working the next year or two it will work. Here is the link to the product that I have been using.
It is possible to use this universal kit to adapt it to the mini irrigation kit as well all you need is an outlet adapter to be bought separately.
Having said that established plants and trees don’t much watering and if there is enough rainwater they will survive. It’s the young seedling and plants plus drought that you need to worry about. Plants have also got a natural way of finding water so all good news. I know this as last year I went away for 6 weeks in June (it’s British early summer season). Came home and a lot of my plants survived!! even the tomatoes.
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