Hi,

I've decided to grasp the nettle this year and put in an automatic
watering system, mainly to keep things ticking over when I'm away
without having to bother anyone else.

It's a small urban garden: small lawn (about 5m x 3m) surrounded by
beds with some pots and planters on the patio (and possibly some
window boxes to be included). Anyway, I've just had a look online at
the Gardena "Micro Drip" irrigation system (which seems quite
expensive). Any comments - does its quality justify the expense, or
can I do it better cheaper?

Cheers!

Martin

"Martin Pentreath"wrote
I've decided to grasp the nettle this year and put in an automatic
watering system, mainly to keep things ticking over when I'm away
without having to bother anyone else.

It's a small urban garden: small lawn (about 5m x 3m) surrounded by
beds with some pots and planters on the patio (and possibly some
window boxes to be included). Anyway, I've just had a look online at
the Gardena "Micro Drip" irrigation system (which seems quite
expensive). Any comments - does its quality justify the expense, or
can I do it better cheaper?

I expect you could save quite a lot by doing it yourself, buying the hose
you need, connectors and drippers etc. A friend who was away a lot on
location did it and it worked well.
See...
http://www.kaysdiscountgarden.co.uk/1.html
--
Regards
Bob Hobden
17mls W. of London.UK

"Martin Pentreath" wrote in message
...
Hi,

I've decided to grasp the nettle this year and put in an automatic
watering system, mainly to keep things ticking over when I'm away
without having to bother anyone else.

It's a small urban garden: small lawn (about 5m x 3m) surrounded by
beds with some pots and planters on the patio (and possibly some
window boxes to be included). Anyway, I've just had a look online at
the Gardena "Micro Drip" irrigation system (which seems quite
expensive). Any comments - does its quality justify the expense, or
can I do it better cheaper?

Cheers!

Martin

Keep an eye open for the ads at Aldi and Lidl they sell the kit and timers
usually just at the start of the growing season.Suitable for greenhouse and
small beds use we have tried allsorts it all does work.Just takes a little
time to set up so the drips run evenly or you tend to get an odd one that
floods and another with no feed. see
http://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/ca...valves-filters
for comparison last time the aldi timer was 1/2 that price but the Micro kit
was about the same.

Derek

Martin Pentreath wrote:
Hi,

I've decided to grasp the nettle this year and put in an automatic
watering system, mainly to keep things ticking over when I'm away
without having to bother anyone else.

It's a small urban garden: small lawn (about 5m x 3m) surrounded by
beds with some pots and planters on the patio (and possibly some
window boxes to be included). Anyway, I've just had a look online at
the Gardena "Micro Drip" irrigation system (which seems quite
expensive). Any comments - does its quality justify the expense, or
can I do it better cheaper?

Cheers!

Martin

I have used Gardena in the past. I now use Draper and Hozelock.

My original Gardena "water computer" (model 2030) was brilliant. I bought
it in 1988, and it lasted 11 years before playing up. Then I got another 4
years use after dismantling it and cleaning the valve. Its replacement,
model C1030, started playing up after 18 months. I got it working a couple
of times, but I had to replace it after another year.

In the meantime, I used a Hozelock (front garden) and replaced the Gardena
with a Draper (back garden). Both have worked without problem, although I
could not use them for nearly 2 years because of a hosepipe ban. Both were
much cheaper than Gardena. The only minor downside is that whereas the
Gardenas were silent, both the other timers use very noisy motorised valves.
You most certainly won't miss them going on and off!

You will have to clean the drip heads now and again, whether they are fixed
or variable, and check that the variable ones haven't changed their drip
rate after a time. They will do this if the water pressure changes. And it
will - from either a fall in mains pressure or a change in the motorised
valve flow (maybe from a partially blocked filter). I also find that
whatever make of pressure flow reducer (from mains to something the drip
system likes) I use, it tends to leak a bit.

It takes a time to get everything set up, but it is worth it. I set mine up
to water twice a day - 7am and 7pm for 20 minutes. You can go on holiday
and not worry about your pots drying out. And it saves a surprising amount
of time. When we had the hose ban on, it took between 30 and 45 minutes,
and up to 20 watering-cans of 8 litres to do all the pots. Good exercise,
though!

--
Jeff
(cut "thetape" to reply)

I had a Gardena automatic watering system at my last house and,
although it worked OK, it was an absolute pain to set up. They did a
fantastic job of making it look simple on the pack but, when I opened
the box, I was faced with dozens of little plastic bits that all
looked the same. I think it took about six hours to set up and then
even longer 'tinkering' to get all of the drippers working as I
wanted.

I too have an 'urban' garden in my current house, with mostly pots and
hanging baskets. Last summer I bought a Hozelock AquaPod system and
it's brilliant! It took about 10 mins to set up and has automatic
drippers so there was no tinkering involved. The kit came with two
'pods' and a timer, plus I bought another couple of pods to add on.
Each pod has five drippers (from memory) but the pods link together if
you need to add more (my system looked after about 15-20 pots last
year but I'll be adding more soon).

Another good point is that it only took 5 mins to pack away once my
pots had gone over, whereas I had to leave the Gardena system out all
through the winter.

Good luck with whichever system you choose.

On 2008-02-15 13:07:48 +0000, said:

I had a Gardena automatic watering system at my last house and,
although it worked OK, it was an absolute pain to set up. They did a
fantastic job of making it look simple on the pack but, when I opened
the box, I was faced with dozens of little plastic bits that all
looked the same. I think it took about six hours to set up and then
even longer 'tinkering' to get all of the drippers working as I
wanted.

I too have an 'urban' garden in my current house, with mostly pots and
hanging baskets. Last summer I bought a Hozelock AquaPod system and
it's brilliant! It took about 10 mins to set up and has automatic
drippers so there was no tinkering involved. The kit came with two
'pods' and a timer, plus I bought another couple of pods to add on.
Each pod has five drippers (from memory) but the pods link together if
you need to add more (my system looked after about 15-20 pots last
year but I'll be adding more soon).

Another good point is that it only took 5 mins to pack away once my
pots had gone over, whereas I had to leave the Gardena system out all
through the winter.

Good luck with whichever system you choose.

I wlll add my 2p in favour of the Hozelock AquaPod system. I have a
couple set up to water plants in my porch all year round and they
haven't missed a beat since last summer. Couldn't have been easier to
set up - unlike the kits that I've seen from Gardena and Hozelock. The
AquaPod pull-out microbore hoses are very neat but I would have liked
them to be a tad longer. Meanwhile, I just group my containers around
the pods.