Micro Irrigation

Micro irrigation is the future of gardening.  It’s easy; it’s extremely water efficient; it’s practically invisible; and it can be adapted without fuss to meet the changing demands of season and size.

Micro irrigation allows a gardener to take advantage of a watering system that delivers water exactly where it’s needed.  Water is routed straight to garden borders, pots, hanging baskets and vegetable rows.  As a garden expands or contracts, with new planters added or the course of ornamental borders changed, micro irrigation systems can be extended or retracted.  Their sprinklers can be used en masse, to water a whole garden: or independently, ensuring that plants and areas that require more frequent watering don’t go thirsty.  All of which is done without tedious, time-consuming (and wasteful) hosing.

So what is it?  Micro irrigation works on a very simple efficiency principle:  most water used in traditional irrigation (i.e. hosing) methods is wasted.  When a gardener uses a hose to water bedding, vegetable plantings, pots and baskets, only a small proportion of the water ejected from the hose goes where it is needed – to the root systems of the plants.  The rest either sprays out and away from the area the hose is pointed at, or is lost as run-off from the plants’ leaves.  Micro irrigation sends water through tiny pipes to nozzles placed beneath the leaves, at the base of plants where the soil and roots are.

A micro irrigation setup runs from a normal outdoor tap, like a hose.  A network of thin piping (which maximises water pressure as well as ensuring a “direct hit”) carries the water to designated areas, where miniature sprinkler nozzles are planted using little plastic spikes.  The piping in a micro irrigation system can be laid under or alongside turf and beds in such a way that it is practically invisible.  A gardener can also run the piping up walls, posts and porch supports to feed hanging baskets. 

On- and off-taps can be placed anywhere in the system to control the flow of water from the main supply pipes to the subsidiary sprinkler piping.  This allows a gardener using a micro irrigation system to set which parts of it are going to dispense water before he or she turns on the main tap.  Micro irrigation systems can also be operated using timers:  the simplest are similar to egg timers, or those daily-feed “on holiday” cat bowls:  a wind-down timer that resets itself after each use so plants are watered regularly without need for manual operation.  More sophisticated digital timers allow micro irrigation systems to be used with multiple pre-programmed routines and can even turn areas of the garden “on” or “off”.

Micro irrigation lets a gardener have total control over what is watered in the garden; when; for how long; and with how much water.  In our age of persistent resource concern, that’s a reassuring promise.  It means gardeners can get more out of their plants for less water use – year round, with complete efficiency.