Reliable Irrigation

When choosing equipment or machinery for your house or garden, it's best to go for something that is simple, with very few moving parts. That way, there is less to go wrong, wear out or break. Home irrigation systems are good examples. Many are fitted with tiny spray heads that block up, or they become brittle and break over time. These spray heads produce very fine mists of water that are often blown around by the wind rather than falling onto the garden bed, so the plants are not watered efficiently.

Smart solution

Don demonstrated how to put together a very basic but very smart home irrigation system to water a row of plants. It consists of a main line, at least 1" or 25mm in diameter, with thin spaghetti tubes running to each plant. There are no spray heads; the water simply squirts out the end of the spaghetti tubing into the air. This system has several advantages: It's cheap, easy and almost foolproof. There are no spray heads to block up. There is little maintenance required. You can see from a distance exactly how much water each plant is receiving. Once the plants adjust to having all the water around one side of the roots they'll grow as never before.

Copyright CTC Productions 2002