"Chookie" wrote in message
...
Sydney has just moved up a level of water restrictions and with a
9-week-old
baby and a 4-year-old, I'd rather not stand around in my vegie patch for
hours
with a hose on Sundays and Wednesdays. So -- tell me your experiences
with
drip irrigation and its variants.

Any recommendations?

--
Chookie -- Sydney, Australia
(Replace "foulspambegone" with "optushome" to reply)

"In Melbourne there is plenty of vigour and eagerness, but there is
nothing worth being eager or vigorous about."
Francis Adams, The Australians, 1893.

Chookie,

VERY happy with the brown dripper line made by Netafim. I think you can buy
it in Bunnings, and most irrigation water supply places these days. It
comes in various diameters (usually half inch is the go for drippers), but
it has the drippers built into the pipe. All there is are holes a set
distance apart along the pipe. When you buy the stuff, it will have 3
characterisitcs; pipe dia, distance between emitters, and rate per hour.
Great thing about the stuff is that all drippers put out the rated quantity
regardless of how much pressure is in the line. No more continually
adjusting drippers to get them all working properly.

Stuff we bought was 12mm(1/2 inch), 40cm between emitters, and 2 L\hour.
Works a treat. Only suggestion would be putting a decent inline filter on
the start of the lie, and maybe the option to flush the line every so often.
I simply have a tap timer supplying water as I want it.

This stuff is dearer than normal dripper hose, but is far simpler to
install, and is more water-conscious than the same number of drippers on
normal dripper line. Bloke who sold us our roll showed me a large lawn out
front of the shop in Roma (QLD) where they laid this stuff under the lawn
before laying the turf. He says they turn the drippers on for about an hour
once a week, ans the lawn looked great. We have run a few runs of it here,
and it has worked very well. Seems to be slightly heavier wall thickness
than normal dripper line, which may give it slightly better life.

If I was doing a vegie patch, I would seriously consider this stuff.

Cheers,

Rod.......Out Back