Garden watering/irrigation system

[jjcd]

Has anyone installed a garden automatic watering system? We’ve just landscaped and planted and I’d like to fit something - any recommendations? There is a lot of choice of generic products on Amazon.

[Harpoon]

I've got automated watering for crops in the greenhouse and raised beds, with an upgrade to cover more being planned at the moment.

What sort of area are you covering? Landscape irrigation is a bit different to crop irrigation

I'm a big fan of the Link Tap timers. Australian company with proper support / development (they sell via Amazon in the UK), so much better IMO than unknown Chinese timers with apps from Amazon or eBay.

https://www.link-tap.com/

I buy most of LDPE pipe, connectors and drippers from Water Irrigation, though they also sell landscape type equipment so worth a browse.

https://www.waterirrigation.co.uk/

[Simpo Two]

I tried one of those cheap units with lots of nozzles and thin hose you find on Amazon etc, and a timer. Mostly a waste of time IMHO; the nozzles would clog, the tubing would blow off the nozzles - so I spent more time going out with cable ties and it was still unreliable. It didn't seem to help keep the plants alive much in heatwaves either so it was more of an irritating keep-fit exercise than anything else.

I bought a decent lawn sprinkler and use that to do the lawn and borders together.

[RotorRambler]

I’ve used the Hozelok easy drip system for years, no problems.
Mostly for pots and hanging baskets etc, keeps them alive when away!
I added a lot to it, bought more tubing and nozzles from Amazon. Not always their brand, but ones with good reviews from purchasers. All good.

[Danns]

Just finished* installing my own - designed it myself.

WiFi/ iPhone, scheduling, mains pressure, rain sensor, e stop. Used an old iPad as a permanent HMI (still pre beta on that - but it all works) also has a watchdog separate timer incase wifi drops out.

• it’ll never be finsihed! Adding robot mower integration next.

[Nothingtoseehere]

Cool!

I've just had a Hunter system professionally installed as part of a landscaping project. Bloody awesome so far. Well awesome in that it's keeping the plants alive.

As above, all wifi controlled multi zone. It's on a set schedule and compensates for dry/wet weather so no fiddling required.

I wouldn't fancy setting it up myself but as above it can be done.

[WH16]

Danns said:

Just finished* installing my own - designed it myself.

WiFi/ iPhone, scheduling, mains pressure, rain sensor, e stop. Used an old iPad as a permanent HMI (still pre beta on that - but it all works) also has a watchdog separate timer incase wifi drops out.

• it ll never be finsihed! Adding robot mower integration next.

I saw this post and immediately thought of xkcd.com

[The Three D Mucketeer]

Danns said:

Need to automate the Mice and Rat catching though rather than the boxes... Do they eat the cables ?

[Danns]

WH16 said:

I saw this post and immediately thought of xkcd.com

lol! And terrifyingly accurate!

Also went hunter for this, close to 30 prs40 pop ups ( 4 and 12 inch) and went with the MP2000/ strip rotators and 8 of the Hunter 1 inch 24v valves.

Originally,
Ahem 3 years ago when I started designing this in my head - I went for the i20 pop ups.. changed my mind earlier in the year, they are a bit aggressive!

[Danns]

The Three D Mucketeer said:

Need to automate the Mice and Rat catching though rather than the boxes... Do they eat the cables ?

Give it time… a man and enough IOT devices will figure a way to automate everything

[southendpier]

[pistonheadsuser]what does your Estate Manager say? [/pistonheadsuser]

[otolith]

Harpoon said:

I've got automated watering for crops in the greenhouse and raised beds, with an upgrade to cover more being planned at the moment.

What sort of area are you covering? Landscape irrigation is a bit different to crop irrigation

I'm a big fan of the Link Tap timers. Australian company with proper support / development (they sell via Amazon in the UK), so much better IMO than unknown Chinese timers with apps from Amazon or eBay.

https://www.link-tap.com/

I buy most of LDPE pipe, connectors and drippers from Water Irrigation, though they also sell landscape type equipment so worth a browse.

https://www.waterirrigation.co.uk/

Another vote for Link Tap from me.

I got sick of replacing the cheap timers - I was running multiple timers for different parts of the garden, and they seem to live a year or two before going tits up, occasionally doing so while stuck open which isn't good. So I bought this:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/LinkTap-Q1-Wireless-Gatew...

I can now programme the watering of the veg bed, greenhouse, patio pots, and flower beds separately. I was previously running all of those off two individual timers, but having four separate programmes is much more water efficient. The four areas all take different amounts of water and the three outdoor zones are set up not to water if there has been rain or rain is expected soon. The kit seems really solid. And it includes water metering, so I can see how much I have spent on watering the garden.

So down to the link tap for the back garden and a cheapy for the front garden at her place, and two cheapies at mine!

[The Three D Mucketeer]

I fancy one of those Chinese robots to do the gardening , if it could do a marathon quicker than a human , it should find gardening easy .

[billbring]

What are you all using to actually deliver the water from the timer to the plants?

[Danns]

I’ve got close to 300m of 25mm PE80 for mine.

With 25mm to 3/4 bsp compression fitting where the tap off points are.

Can then get the 8mm push fit to 3/4 tap connector straight onto the 25mm then.

Overkill? Probably
Future proofed? Yup
Minimal pressure loss? Yup that too

[Byker28i]

Harpoon said:

I've got automated watering for crops in the greenhouse and raised beds, with an upgrade to cover more being planned at the moment.

I've put in three water butts fed from the drainpipes, the largest in the poly tunnel, and as we were away for two weeks, I rigged up a sprinkler system using connectors and different hoselock sprayheads in the poly tunnel, driven by a pump activated by a wifi controlled plug, with the water supply as the largest butt. I haven't found the pipes jump off the t connectors.

Worked well, but was manual, which was fun with dodgy wifi connection. Did that turn off or not...

[paulrockliffe]

Danns said:

lol! And terrifyingly accurate!

Also went hunter for this, close to 30 prs40 pop ups ( 4 and 12 inch) and went with the MP2000/ strip rotators and 8 of the Hunter 1 inch 24v valves.

Originally,
Ahem 3 years ago when I started designing this in my head - I went for the i20 pop ups.. changed my mind earlier in the year, they are a bit aggressive!

How are you developing this and what valves are you using?

I've had a vague plan to bury a few IBCs in my garden for years, the idea is to pump from the IBCs at high flow and essentially dump a few cubes onto the lawn and plants in under a minute, for no reason other than it would be really cool to watch the whole garden explode in water like that. I've got as far as remembering to run 25mm pipe whenever I have bits of the garden dug up, which isn't very far at all!

Part of my reticence in putting any time into it is that XKCD cartoon and the need to mess around getting it all working - I was going to hook up some moisture probes and valves into Home Assistant. But it needs automated routines to blow compressed air through all the pipes to clear before winter, which means more values and pressure monitoring and water sensors on the pipes somewhere to make sure it's been done etc and and and.

But it's back on the agenda now because the software side should really simple - I will just ask Codex to build a Docker Container to run all the automations and output a monitoring web page with webhooks into Home Assistant to send me alerts when watering happens. I've already built the MIL face detection element via my CCTV system, so targeted drenchings will work as planned.

So yeah, interested in hhow oyu've built the sotware side and what valves you used as that was the last bit I hadn't got worked out?

[otolith]

billbring said:

What are you all using to actually deliver the water from the timer to the plants?

This sort of 13mm/16mm internal/external distribution pipe:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0BYPHXTQW



Connectors like these:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B094ZD12ZS



This sort of 4mm/6mm dropper pipe:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B097H7HD3K



These valves to connect droppers to distribution pipe:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B014ZUVXKQ



And then a variety of drippers. The cheapest generic ones are like this:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0C8N5N83G



They are brittle plastic and break easily.

The Claber ones they sell online and at garden centres and DIY stores are much more robust, and much more expensive. I use various types including the Claber ones and the Chinese generic stuff.

[nvubu]

We've also got the Link Tap timers - a single & a double.

For the 13mm hose I found these to be the best connectors - Gardena on Amazon.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Gardena-Micro-Drip-System...



and

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Gardena-Micro-Drip-System...



Just about to connect ours up for the year as we have had a move around of the potted fruit trees.

[Danns]

paulrockliffe said:

How are you developing this and what valves are you using?

I've had a vague plan to bury a few IBCs in my garden for years, the idea is to pump from the IBCs at high flow and essentially dump a few cubes onto the lawn and plants in under a minute, for no reason other than it would be really cool to watch the whole garden explode in water like that. I've got as far as remembering to run 25mm pipe whenever I have bits of the garden dug up, which isn't very far at all!

Part of my reticence in putting any time into it is that XKCD cartoon and the need to mess around getting it all working - I was going to hook up some moisture probes and valves into Home Assistant. But it needs automated routines to blow compressed air through all the pipes to clear before winter, which means more values and pressure monitoring and water sensors on the pipes somewhere to make sure it's been done etc and and and.

But it's back on the agenda now because the software side should really simple - I will just ask Codex to build a Docker Container to run all the automations and output a monitoring web page with webhooks into Home Assistant to send me alerts when watering happens. I've already built the MIL face detection element via my CCTV system, so targeted drenchings will work as planned.

So yeah, interested in hhow oyu've built the sotware side and what valves you used as that was the last bit I hadn't got worked out?

Valves are Hunter 1 inch male 24v ac jar tops
Can see em here before I buried. Work perfectly with the only manifold sections that appear available here.

There s a 25mm double check valve top left too.

Draining is mostly achieved with claber auto drain valves (6 of them). Ie no water sits in the pipe at the end of a schedule. Have to remember to remove highest check valve in the pop up if doing this.

Also used a Shelly Uni plus board to handle dry contact inputs for monitoring e stop and rain sensor. + used it for the 0-10v input to interface the generic Chinese pressure transducer.

I ve got a 9kg almost full tank of OF nitrogen + 30 bar regulator from installing my air con, will use this to fully purge in winter.

Everything is in home assistant running on a pi4. Picture elements card for the main HMI and some assistance from copilot to get me started (gets rather infuriating and makes a lot of mistakes in YAML) / very prone to leading you down the wrong garden path when attempting to debug.

There is an irrigation solution in HACS, but I figured it would be as much fun as trying to working with someone else s excel file, so started from scratch.

Edited by Danns on Tuesday 5th May 18:49

Edited by Danns on Tuesday 5th May 19:13