"Trish Brown" wrote in message
...
We're considering installing a watering system since our garden area has
grown so large recently. Having studied the layout of the block, we've
decided where the pipes need to go, but which spigots to install for which
plants?

There are weepers and tricklers and sprays and sprinklers and... I dunno!

To my mind, you want to water the soil, not the foliage. Does that mean
only weepers or tricklers will do a decent job? What's the point of
putting in risers with sprays mounted at their tops? And how do you stop
the main pipes from twisting around so the spigotty-things stay put?

HELP! This is a serious post. Please don't joke until you've given me a
starting point!

Thanks, guys. ;-


Sprayers are good in that you can see what area they cover and adjust them
to fit. They are not so good as they encourage some fungi by wetting
foliage and kicking up spores from the dirt in some cases, they are also
likely to waste some water through evaporation or runoff. Both of the
latter problems can be minimised by not running at high pressure and
monitoring how the soil is taking up water. Risers are to allow you to bury
the pipes and to give greater coverage (especially above mulch) as within
limits the higher the jet the further it will shoot (and be carried by the
wind).

Drippers and soakers don't have the disadvantages of sprayers, you can put
them under the mulch and waste almost nothing. However the water is all
applied at one point so the coverage is dependent on the hydraulic qualities
of your soil. With very sandy soil the water is likely to go downwards and
not spread much away from the source, which may be exactly what you want -
or not. In very clay soil infiltration can be slow but as long as you apply
the water slowly to avoid runoff it will be OK as the water will spread if
supplied slowly It is possible to get dry spots and these can be hard to
notice and you can get plants congregating around the wet spots. Mostly you
can deal with this by some careful study and inserting/removing extra
drippers where required.

Go to an irrigation/sprinkler shop as once they realise you are serious they
will explain much more than the bored student and Bunnings who has no clue.
Take home all the pamphlets and do you sums, arrange your bankloan etc

Try:

http://www.hunterirrigation.com.au/

for a start.

Oh one final tip. Get some extra joiners for the cuts you didn't mean to
make and some plugs for the jets/drippers yopu didn't mean to put in.

David