Irrigation Tips for Effective Watering | Gardening 101 | Gardening Australia

Millie has some tips for effective irrigation.

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I love hand watering.
It gives me a great opportunity to observe what’s really happening
in the garden every single day. But the truth is, I’m getting busier
and it is getting hotter and drier. And so today I want to put in
a drip system to help me water my garden more
efficiently and more effectively. Now, a lot of people are
a bit intimidated by irrigation, but it can be quite simple. The first thing you need to know is
how much water you have to work with. Time how long it takes
to fill a bucket. This is a ten-litre bucket and it took about 15 seconds to fill. Now, in a 60-second minute,
you get four lots of 15. So that means I get four buckets
per minute of water – 40L. Now in an hour there are 60 minutes. So 40 times 60 gives me my total amount of water
that I have to use. Just like everything else
in the garden, it’ll always be most effective
when you’ve got a plan. So once you’ve got your flow rate, you can look at the areas
that you want to water and ensure you’ve got
enough supply from that water source to cover what you need. I’ve drawn a mud map of the seven
beds that I want the system to water. Each is about 5m long
by about 1m wide. Now, with this information
plus your flow rate, you can go and get some help
from an expert to make a plan. And if you want
some more information, you can hit up our website. You don’t need many extra tools
to do a job like this. In fact,
my secateurs do most of them. But a trenching shovel
will help so much. And a thermos
is a great little bit of kit. Now you can see we’ve got
this great trench here. In winter, it actually acts like
a really effective drain for too much rain. But in summer
and those warmer months, it gives an opportunity
to use it for things like this. So I’ve run a feeder pipe
from the water source all the way along the edge
of each of the gardens. And it’s a large pipe. It’s 19mm. Which means we’re going to maintain
as much water flow as we can all the way down the slope. While the garden
is essentially one large area, it is on a gentle slope. So I’ve decided to divide it into
two separate watering areas. The top of the slope dries out
much more quickly. So I’m going to put that on a separate line
to these lower beds which hold the moisture
for much longer. I’m going to water them as a group, but at times we’re going to have
different needs in individual beds. Like this bed.
When you sow out some seeds, for those first few weeks while
they germinate and get established, it’s difficult for them to actually
reach the water from a dripper. So top-watering is going
to be much more effective. So each of the beds, of course,
has its own feed line. And this is
where the drip irrigation will join. I’m going to attach it
to this feeder pipe. And of course I’ve put a tap
on every single bed, so if I need to, I can switch it off. Now the next step is to attach
the manifold to that feeder pipe. So I’m just going to line it up about where it’s going to sit
in the bed and then cut that pipe. Next I’m going to fit the T which goes from
that 19mm feeder pipe down to the smaller size
for the drip. Now I’ve got to attach the manifold that’s going to feed my drip
to that T. Now, this is where a little bit
of hot water can go a long way. If you’re doing lots of joins, dipping that pipe in
will soften it up and make it much easier to join. Now I’ve just got to
lay that pipe out in the bed. So you can see that I’m using a pipe
that actually has inbuilt drippers. They’re pressure-regulated, which means that they’ll let
the same amount of water – two litres
from each of those drippers – out. And I’ve spaced the pipe a little
bit closer than recommended, because I want to get
a really even wet across the bed. It’ll mean I run it
for a shorter period, but I’ll get great delivery of water
for every crop that I grow. Now for connecting
your water source – your tap or your tank –
to your irrigation system. Now I’m going to keep it
really simple, but you can get far more complicated
and far more automated than this. This is just the two feeder pipes that are coming out
of the ground here. They run across the path
and down to the garden. And I’ve installed a filter in each
to stop any unnecessary stuff ending up in my drip system. And also I’ve put a pressure-reducing
valve at the top. That’ll mean if
that water pressure does fluctuate, go much higher,
it won’t overload that system. I’m also going to connect up
a simple two-outlet tap timer. And that means I’ll be able
to set each of those areas to water on different days
for different lengths of time, as they need it. The first time
you fire up the system, leave everything open
and let the water flow because it’ll flush out any dirt
or debris that’s gotten in there. And I like to leave the ends open. Some people join it, as a box, but I leave each and every one open. And instead of putting a cap on it,
I just use a simple technique that means I can open it
any time I want. I just clamp it together,
just kink the hose – we all know what a blockage
that can cause. So that means that any time
that I need to flush this line, if I accidentally put a hole in it
and have to repair it, I can just take the end off
and flush it clean. A little bit of mulch, of course. It’s got to be how you finish
every Gardening Australia story. But it’s also going to help to keep
that valuable moisture in the soil. And I won’t lie to you – I find irrigation
a little bit annoying and I have really resisted
doing this job. But I’m sure it’s going
to pay dividends. Watering at the roots,
it keeps water off the foliage, it prevents disease, and it’s
a really efficient way to do it. It’s also going to give me
a little bit of freedom to go away and leave my lettuce
for the weekend, if I so desire. So this bit of work, I think,
is going to pay huge dividends for our little garden.