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Garden Watering systems are something that is in demand a lot these days. They help you with a lot of things directly and indirectly. Some of which will include giving your plants the perfect amount of water that they require or saving water; you just name them.
Aside from the garden watering systems having a lot of advantages, they also have a lot of disadvantages. These disadvantages of the garden watering systems depend on the type of system that is being used in any given garden.
If the type suits the soil and plants, i.e., if the system that is used is compatible with the amount of water the plants will require and the amount of water the system is giving, then that will obviously be a good choice for your garden, otherwise, you should definitely look for other options.
In this article, I am going to be telling you everything there is to know about the garden watering systems, how you can use them, how they work, all their types.
Also, which type is to be used where, which type should not be used where, the demands of the garden watering systems, and other benefits of using Garden watering systems as well as its disadvantages.
I am also going to be talking about all the issues that these garden watering systems can cause in any garden such as soil erosion and other different things that you might or might not have considered important prior to reading this article. So I am going to tell you about everything that you would need to know about garden watering systems.
But before we get started with the main topic at hand, it would be better if I started off with some background information on these things to ease you into the topic.
Why Is There A Need For Garden Watering Systems?
Ever since the old ages, humankind has been careless with the use of its resources. Back then it was not that big of an issue but in these times, it definitely is. If people just keep consuming and consuming everything they get their hands on, then eventually, nothing would be left to consume.
But we all already knew that, didn’t we? So why are we still set on not heeding to our own advice that says that we should preserve our resources and use them with care? We do not listen to ourselves because we think the number of resources that are available is not going to just disappear overnight, that we have a lot of time still on our hands.
So if we think that we can just make use of every available thing and not think about the future, well even a kid can explain to you why that is a bad idea. So why do we not listen to our own advice when we perfectly know that we are doomed unless we stop doing things the way we are doing them?
The reason is that we are selfish. We are so selfish that we do not even think about our own future selves, forget about the next generations. So us being selfish has led to the shortage of various resources such as trees, water, etc. Now you might say isn’t there a lot of water on Earth?
Well, there is in fact a lot of water, but only a fraction of it can be consumed. Also, with the technology we have today, we can convert salt water into drinkable water but that’d be too costly. So we ended up with things like garden watering systems, irrigation systems i.e. water management, to help rescue us from this.
Why Is Water Management Necessary?
As I mentioned before, we are in a dire need of things that will rescue us from the problems of shortages of resources like water. Now we cannot produce water ourselves, so what must we do in that case? When we can’t produce something, i.e., when we can’t increase the supply of a resource, we will need to start saving it.
So how do you save water? That’s something very simple yet very complicated. It is simple because you can start saving water by not over-using water at your home, i.e. turning off water taps when not in use, only using up the necessary amount to shower or bathe and not have fun with it because that is just wasting it.
It is complicated because when you are supplying water to any field, farm or even your garden, you just keep the water flowing and end up feeding the field with more water than is required. Sometimes you might not even realize this because some types of soils just drink water so fast that it’s impossible to tell how much more water you should supply.
The same is the problem with some types of garden watering systems or irrigation systems. They have a lot of advantages but unless you have complete knowledge of what you should be doing and how you should be doing it and what amount of water your garden or field needs, you are just going to be either wasting all the water or making your plants wilt.
So you should keep a track of the type of soil that you have in your field, the type of plants that you have in your garden, and the number of plants in the garden because that will tell you how much water they need to avoid that.
How Does the Garden Watering System Come Into The Picture?
As I mentioned before, garden watering systems are something that will help you with a lot of issues if you just know what you need to do and have all the information that you will need. They can help you save water, they can help your crops grow in the best way possible when you use them to supply the exact amount of water needed by the plants.
What these garden watering systems also do is save your time because you will no more need to personally go to each plant or draw out pipes and turn them on to start the water supply to the field. You can just turn these systems on and you would be blessed with the awesomeness that is the garden watering systems.
They provide a very efficient way for you to feed water to your crops. If you want to know whether you should be using the garden watering systems or not, just think about the fact that commercial manufacturers of packaged food use these methods in their own fields and the same is the case with farmers that grow crops on a large scale.
So if they can find these systems useful then so can you. It is not necessary that you should definitely go and buy these things. But it would be best for you, best for your plants and garden, and best for the whole as a whole.
That bit of information might seem a bit intimidating but it is the truth and if you want the best for everyone then you should seriously consider these garden watering systems as an option for your gardens. So if there was ever a need for saving water, then the irrigation systems come into the picture along with other things like rainwater harvesting.
What Are Garden Watering Systems?
To put it in simple words, garden watering systems are something that will give you an almost maintenance-free garden.
If you are someone who is out a lot, like on business trips or just anything similar, or if you have very little time on your hands to take off your garden or are just lazy or do not have enough money to hire a gardener, then this is for you.
The above issues will make taking care of your gardens very tough, so much so that you might sometimes even consider just giving up on your garden. But if you feel even some kind of guilt when these thoughts come to your mind then you should definitely give a try to these garden watering systems.
The automatic garden watering systems would be more suited when these issues arise for you, but if you are at home and can take some time out of your lives to take care of your garden, then the garden watering systems are like a blessing in disguise for you.
The automatic gardening systems can be scheduled to supply water when required, and the normal types can supply the exact amount of water that you would require them to, too.
If you have a garden that’s big in size, so big that you would just have to spend hours on it if you need to take care of all the plants that it has then these watering systems will come in very handy to you. You can use up that time to do any other work and save time for a lot of things.
So when I say that these garden watering systems are very useful, then you should definitely trust me or just use them and find out for yourselves.
How Do Garden Watering Systems Work?
The principle of a garden watering system is pretty simple. It can vary based on the type of system being used but mostly it should remain the same. A garden watering system uses pressure that is formed by a pump that supplies water to the water outlets.
What this pressure does is that it throws out water through the outlets in the necessary amount that is required. The speed, pressure, the distance that the water is to be ejected as well as the amount of water being ejected can all be controlled.
There are some variants of these garden watering systems that are automatic. They are automatic in the sense that you can set a timer as to when you want your plants to be water and the amount of water that you want to supply to your crops.
What other thing should be noted is that there are a number of types of these watering systems available in the market, about which we will discuss later in this article, that serve various different purposes.
These watering systems are not so different from an irrigation system. The main difference is that the irrigation system is used on a big scale whereas these watering systems can be used in your small gardens as well.
If you are worried about the cost of these watering systems, you shouldn’t worry. If you can afford to have your own personal garden then you can definitely afford to buy a watering system that you help you save water, time, and a lot of other things.
Garden watering systems are a blessing that serves the purpose of relieving a lot of pressure from your shoulders related to your gardens when you start using them. Let us move on to other topics related to garden watering systems.
Benefits Of Using Garden Watering Systems
As I have mentioned a lot of times, garden watering systems provide you with a lot of benefits. So much so that you will instantly fall in love with them, bless, and thank yourself for making use of them.
If you are still doubtful as to whether you should be trusting someone from the internet telling you these things, then you can just ask someone who already uses these systems for their gardens or fields. And if you are still unconvinced, well then, below is the list of all the benefits that a garden watering system gives you. So let us begin.
It Saves Water
Well, the best and the biggest advantage that any garden watering system can give you is saving water. If all the rant before about saving water and various ways you can save water has not gotten through to you, then I don’t know what will.
I mean, the biggest incentive that anyone can have for having something is being able to live. So if you have water in your lives, you can be damn sure that you are definitely going to live and have water to maintain all your plants and also, personal hygiene. It also has the benefit of saving you some money. Let us see how.
Garden Watering Systems Save Your Money
This is like a side benefit of the first one, when you use a garden watering system, they help you save water as I explained. In the regions where water is not easily available, water comes with a price, literally.
You have to pay for it in certain places and that is the case with many nations internationally as well. So when a garden watering system is saving water, it directly affects your water bill. If you use up less water then your water bill is definitely going to be less.
It Saves Time
One of the best parts about having garden watering systems is that you do not need to be constantly on the water hose and hold it in your hands while the water drips out. You can instead just use a garden watering system, turn it on and it will do all the work for you.
You will just have to set it up once and it will do its work on its own thereafter. There are also variants like the automatic garden watering system as I mentioned before and they can be set to supply the water at any specific time that you will set for them.
So if you are far from home and have no way home for a lot of time, then your crops can’t wait till your homecoming, can they? They will still need water regardless of you being there or not. So these automatic systems will help you solve that particular issue.
It prevents Soil erosion
With certain garden watering systems, they come with the added benefit of saving the soil that your crops use to grow. When you are using a pressurized pipe to supply water to your crops, they can sometimes take water away with them.
So when you use watering systems like drip watering, they will prevent that issue from ruining your garden. Although, you should keep in mind that with the majority of the garden watering systems, this is a disadvantage as they are highly prone to eroding your soil.
Disadvantage
Water Logging
Water logging is the most common and serious problem occurring in garden watering systems. This is an issue that can damage the crops and can lead to serious problems. As excess water is not good for crops.
Automatic irrigation systems can fail at times as they are just machines, and these failures will directly end up in water logging.
Pollution
The material used for the irrigation system can pollute the crops and as they are mostly made of plastic or rubber, and placing them at some place for a long period of time can pollute the crops.
The plastic or rubber parts can easily harm the growth of plants and can impact on their natural growth and more other factors.
Groundwater
Change in any cycle can break the chain and surely can create more series of problems, and due to excess watering, it can cause an increase of groundwater level which can lead to major crop issues.
Types of Garden Watering Systems
Mini Sprinkler
Mini Sprinklers are one of the important garden watering systems used for nurseries, flower beds, and for agriculture purposes. These are popular because of the higher radius, it covers almost 5 meters of radius.
Mini Sprinkler evenly sprinkles water throughout the field evenly, as it sprinkles droplets to avoid the evaporation factor and provides a good quantity of water to plants. Every buyer gets irritated during the installation process but this is very handy during the installations and you can place it anywhere along with the bushes.
Such a good solution device is widely used by many nurseries and gardeners. People really admire the range it provides, because it saves lots of water and sprinkles sufficient amounts of water all around.
Soaker Hose System
Soaker Hose System is one of those garden watering systems which is used by every farmer. This is one of them that can be made by anyone by just using a pipe and a needle. The pipe has small holes and it is placed all around the field.
The water supply is connected to the pipe and that’s it, that will flow through the pipe and it will leak continuously till the supply is on. This leaking will continuously supply water to the crops at a constant rate.
As this irrigation system is so local, it has some drawbacks too which can lead to more problems further. The holes can get more wider because of high pressure, as time passes the quality of the material Detroit and may lead to leakage of excess water at certain times. Excess water can be harmful for crops
Pop Up Sprinkler
Pop-up Sprinkles are most widely used from all garden watering systems. As it is the set of the whole system under the ground which pops up when groundsmen turn them on. Accordingly, they just go under the ground when the sprinkling is done according to the need.
They are highly used because of the area it covers and they are hidden beside the grass and they move under the ground and level to the surface of the ground. So they never interrupt in any games and you don’t have to remove it or place it.
This system is once fixed and obviously, you have to maintain it periodically, after that you can set a timer for the irrigation system. According to that the Pop-up Sprinklers will come out and will do the job.
MicroJet Sprinkler System
MicroJet Sprinklers are very popular because they literally sprinkle water like its monsoon during the summers. The garden watering systems has Micro Jet as the most commonly used irrigation system. This irrigation system provides water at larger areas, as it has a wide range to cover.
The system has a drawback as it uses more water than other irrigation systems. The system comes pre-assembled and one can easily build it on their own. You can add additional parts too. This system is over the ground and sprinkles water all over and it is a non-moveable system.
How To Set Up Your Garden Watering Systems?
Now that you know about the pros and cons of having a garden watering system and all its types, it is time we moved onto how you would plan on setting up these systems. Let us begin.
Your Garden Map
Before setting up the garden watering systems, you will need to make a perfect plan as to how and where you are going to install them. Just pick up the basic things like paper, pencil, ruler, etc, and start drawing.
Start with drawing the outline of your garden and then proceed to place all the plants and crops and any other things that are in your garden on this garden map perfectly. After you have done that, you will need to mark all the positions of the water sources you have in your garden.
It would be a good idea to put as much information about your garden on the garden map as possible. You should count all the plants and other things in your garden, take measurements of everything, the distance between plants, the whole area of the garden, those kinds of things.
When you have done that, you will also need to map all the things that can get in the way of you setting up pipes and hoses of the watering systems. That will help you when you are actually setting them up.
You will need to make sure that you understand the amount of work that is going to go into the process of planning everything out. You will have to take account of your plants, the number of outlets that you will have to have to supply enough water to everything.
You will also have to keep account of the amount or the length of pipes that you are going to need. You will need to make sure that all the measurements you are taking and writing down are accurate because if they are not, then it is going to cause you a lot of problems when you start installing the pipes and everything else.
Further Planning On Paper
When you have drawn a map, if you were not accurate with your measurements or if you find some difficulty in understanding the rough work of your map, then it might be a good idea to draw the garden map on graph paper.
When you do that, it will give you the advantage of not having to think about the kind of measurements you put. This is because you can simply keep track of everything with a scale, i.e. mark up things in feet while only drawing an inch on the graph paper.
When you are doing something like this, it is good to be doing smart work rather than hard work, because if you have to do hard work even on paper, then things are going to get very complicated for you.
If you have a big garden, you can plan one section at a time so as to not make the whole process very messy. You can split the garden into 2, 4, 8, etc, a number of sections as per the need.
Last Planning Steps
When you have done all the above things, you can make further use of the manual that might come with the garden watering systems when you buy them. If you face any difficulty while installing them, you can contact the dealer from whom you bought the product or even ask them for hired help.
That is a great way of having all the installation work done without any fuss. But if you are set on installing them yourselves, then you might look up videos on how to install them on the internet, for further help.
Now that you know how to install garden watering systems, let us discuss how to choose what type of garden watering systems you will need.
Choosing The Correct Garden Watering Systems
It is important that you analyze everything that your garden and the plants are going to need before you go out to buy them. The following things will help with that.
Method Of Irrigation Suitable To Your Plants
Some plants might require drip irrigation whereas others will need watering systems that spray water on them and some will need basic watering systems. It is essential that you know what your plants are going to need.
You can look up information about the particular plant on the internet and you will find out what is best suited for the plants. If you are unsure as to what your plants will need even after searching on the internet, you can go to any local nursery and ask them about any information that you might need.
Pressure Of The Watering Systems
As I said, the way the water is supplied to the plants is essential and the pressure of the hose or water outlet plays an essential role in that. Pressure is expressed in bars and the amount of pressure a garden watering system or a hose can exert is written either on the product itself or on the manuals provided with them.
You can use a pressure gauge to adjust the pressure of any water outlet and keep it in check. If you do not own a pressure gauge, you can rent one or just go out and buy a new one. The optimum pressure for an average garden would be between 1.5 bars to 5 bars.
Amount Of Water
As I have mentioned a lot of times already, the amount of water a plant gets is essential to its growth. If it gets less than the required amount, it can dry out, and if it gets more than the required amount it can rot.
So when you choose a water outlet or water, make sure it is either adjustable or it is compatible with the amount of water your plants will need. To measure the amount of water being supplied to the plants, you can simply take a bucket that has a known volume and then see how much it fills up in one minute.
To calculate the water speed in liter per minute, you will simply need to divide the volume of the container by the amount of time it took to fill in seconds and then multiply it by 60. That will give you the liters per minute value.
If the bucket gets filled completely and overflows, use another bucket or a bigger bucket. Anyhow, you do it, you should just do it because that will determine whether your plants get to live or not. You would also not want your water to be wasted and your water bill to rise exponentially.
That is something you will have to keep in your mind. When you are installing a garden watering system, make sure that there are no holes or leaks in any of the pipes or hoses because that can be disastrous to your plants as well as to your water bill.
How To Counter Soil Erosion Caused By Garden Watering Systems?
Garden watering systems cause erosion too. If you use watering systems like drip irrigation or spray irrigation, the chances of soil erosion happening to go down but with the other types. Soil erosion is a big issue, especially if you have a plant that requires a lot of water to grow.
A lot of water being used on the plants would mean that the soil is going to drink a lot of water too and that can result in soil erosion of several types. It does not matter what the type of soil erosion is, what matters is that if soil erosion happens, then it is going to cause damage to your plants.
The whole purpose of using garden watering systems is that you would get to take proper and better care of the plants in your garden. If soil erosion happens, that purpose gets defeated. Soil erosion is something that can happen due to a lot of factors.
When you are using artificial methods to provide water to the plants, the chances are, you are going to experience soil erosion. There are various ways that you can use to prevent this from happening in your garden, let us have a look at what they are and how to use them to not let your soil erode.
Planting More Plants
One of the simplest things you could do to prevent soil erosion is planting more plants. When you are planting more plants, you will need to be careful of the fact that too many plants in one small space would be bad for all the plants.
So when you are planting more plants at any given place, make sure that they will be healthy and they are far away from each other enough to grow but close enough to prevent soil erosion. Once the roots of the plants have set in, they will hold the soil together and it will be tougher for it to erode.
If you want to use more plants to prevent soil erosion, consider planting plants that will have healthy root growth.
Matting Your Garden
This is a unique way of preventing soil erosion and is very popular as well. The mats that are used in this method are made of wood fiber and are biodegradable so they will not cause any harm to the garden or its plants.
Matting your garden will give the roots of the plants to grow nicely. Matting is also useful because plants can grow through it. You can use these mats in any specific area or over the whole garden.
Using Fertilizers Or Mulch
If you do not want to overturn the whole soil of your garden, using fertilizers or mulch on your garden can be a great way of preventing the soil from eroding. The layer of mulch will help the soil in absorbing the water slowly.
It will also help in case of heavy rain as it does not let the downpour affect the soil that much. You can use any kind of fertilizers or mulch to prevent soil erosion and they will come with the benefit of being good for your plant growth.
Edging Sections Of The Garden
Sometimes small patches of water or wet mud can form in your garden in places where the ground is hard scraped. This can be due to water erosion that signifies soil erosion runoff. You can do this by making edges or mini-wall-like structures around the garden.
These walls will help the soil not eroding and the water will remain in your garden itself and the soil will soak it in.
So to conclude the topic of soil erosion, you should make sure that the soil in your garden is not eroding and if it is then you can prevent that by using various methods like matting or planting more plants.
All in all, what we all want is for our plants to grow in a healthy environment and make everything look beautiful, and using these methods as well as the garden watering systems will help you achieve that.
Cessation | Garden Watering Systems
To conclude everything that has been said in this article so far, I am going to say that the garden watering systems are like a must-have commodity to have in your garden if it is big and which you need to water regularly or semi-regularly.
The garden watering systems will help you save water, save your money and save you a lot of time. If you are mostly not at home, you can consider using automatic water gardening systems.
You can opt for the other type of watering systems based on the need of your garden and plants. When you are buying a watering system, make sure you look for everything that you are going to need in it for your garden.
After you have bought it by following all the steps that we mentioned, your next step should be planning out how and where you are going to install the garden water systems. If you do that properly, you will not face any issue with it in the future.
Also, make sure all the equipment you use is working properly and seek professional help if you are unable to do any part of the process on your own.
Lastly, if your garden is prone to soil erosion with or without the garden watering systems, consider the soil erosion prevention methods that I listed above and you will have a healthy and beautiful garden. A garden that your guests will admire and that will give you a happy mood whenever you gaze upon their beauty.
