Thank you both for your advice, much appreciated! Yes it's just for flower beds, no pots. I've emailed a couple of companies to ask for their advice with which of their products to go for, so will see what they say. @Fire I imagine you're right and it will take a goof deal of fiddling about with and many perplexed looks! Yoh tube is a great idea. But I do feel / hope it will be worth it in the end, I feel pretty awful about the amount of water I use at the moment.
@Lizzie27 thank you on the drilling - I think I might do that regardless as it will be a lot neater than the current set up!
@gilla.walmsley , my original system (small-bore pipes and drippers for baskets and containers) was from a B&Q own-brand kit (micropipes, drippers, pressure regulator thingy, pipe joining bits) that they discontinued donkey's ages ago, with a Hozelock timer that (I think) took those big rectangular batteries.
The timer died (my fault - I forgot to bring it in before it got frozen one winter) so now I have a cheapo timer from Amazon that takes either AA or AAA batteries, can't remember which but a common size either way. My current timer has two outlets that you can operate separately (program or manual on/off overriding the program) so one part waters the baskets and containers on my original system and the other is available to connect to a regular hose, or via a length of hose to a length of seep hose laid in the border. I have several of those which are semi-buried under mulch and I connect regular hose and switch on the timer when I want to use one, only in very dry weather because I do try to avoid watering the borders if I can (I'm also in the drier east side of the country, but not as dry as where you are). You don't need the pressure reducer for seep hose.
The drippers tend to get blocked with limescale after a few years so I've got packs of cheap(ish) replacements. Sometimes I attempt to descale them in a cup of kettle descaler stuff or cheap vinegar but it's not 100% successful.
Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
One thing I found from experimenting is that the pipes can get in the way of digging and planting. It's worth bearing in mind when planning the layout. This is perhaps harder to manage in a small bed.
Oh good point @Fire ! Particularly relevant because I grow and plant a huge amount of annuals each year, so rather a lot of faffing about with the beds. I'll have to be careful!
@JennyJ thats interesting - my particular spot of the land is horrendously bad hard water... the hardest in the country, I can't even drink water from the tap without running it through my filter jug, or even use it cook with unfiltered! So worth being aware of in terms of limescale. Are you aware of any pros/cons in terms of seep hoses vs drip hoses?
Would there be any value in reconsidering the rain water collection route…even the driest uk counties still get 40ish mm of rain per month through the summer. The driest county (Cambridgeshire) has 7 days >1mm rain in August, on average. If you could use collected water for another 7/8 days then that works out to watering every other day!
The area you looking to irrigate could be covered by a single sprinkler or hose. If you have a couple of square meters for a tank (2/3000l) and a pump your all set..no worries about hard water, digging through drip lines etc
You could always fall back to the hose (assuming no ban) in exceptional circs but hopefully you can meet your needs most of the time.
Seep hose will water a wider area (you can wind it around a border) whereas drippers target individual plants/containers. Seep hose might be better for example, for areas where you rearrange plants each year, put in annuals, allow self-seeders to grow, etc.
Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
…even the driest uk counties still get 40ish mm of rain per month through the summer. ...
That may be true over the long term averages but there have been many exceptions in recent years and I expect that will continue.
Last
summer (2023) was generally regarded as being quite wet, but here we had only
39mm in May and 34mm in June, with no rain at all between the middle of
May and the middle of June which is just about the maximum plant growth
period. In 2022 our spring/summer rainfall was April 0.5mm, May 40mm,
June 22.5mm, July 20mm, August 24.5mm. This year so far, so good - we've had above-long-term-average rainfall every month since July 2023 - but I have no expectation that it will continue through the spring and summer (I hope it does, but it's pretty unlikely).
Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
Agree @JennyJ - I'm on the border of Cambridgeshire and Essex and whatever the records say (aside from last year which was slightly better) for the previous four years I've lived here it pretty much hasn't rained from May to September. And then rains every day from October to April .... does feel a bit strange to be complaining about not enough rain when it currently hasn't stopped for what feels like months
I do feel like the tank could be a good idea as an 'additional' item though. It could possibly serve a particular section of my garden and negate the need for multiple pipes everywhere
Jenny it sounds like a seep hose is potentially much better for my situation then. Winding it around a border would be SO much easier because I don't have square borders.
I’m near you @gilla.walmsley, & I can confirm that we generally get very little rainfall. We moved here in 2015 & after quite a wet winter it didn’t seem to rain for the next three years. It made creating a new garden a bit difficult!! I have a seep hose set up around our fruit & veg beds which needs replacing due to limescale. It works, but not brilliantly
@Cebe sounds like we have very similar circumstances! The limescale around here is awful, I moved here five years ago only 40 minutes north from where I grew up, and the difference in hard water even just with that distance is so noticeable. As I said in a previous post, I can't even drink it from the tap! So I'll prepare myself for needing to replace the seep hoses! It's made more challenging by the fact I don't have the standard soil type for the area, I think due to my proximity to the river - I have extremely stony soil, so the lack of water in the summer really makes it all feel barren and dry. I keep telling myself "right plant, right place" but don't always listen
I guess it would also be very hard if you have the normal heavy clay too, like rock in the summer!
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@Lizzie27 thank you on the drilling - I think I might do that regardless as it will be a lot neater than the current set up!
@JennyJ thats interesting - my particular spot of the land is horrendously bad hard water... the hardest in the country, I can't even drink water from the tap without running it through my filter jug, or even use it cook with unfiltered! So worth being aware of in terms of limescale. Are you aware of any pros/cons in terms of seep hoses vs drip hoses?
You could always fall back to the hose (assuming no ban) in exceptional circs but hopefully you can meet your needs most of the time.
I do feel like the tank could be a good idea as an 'additional' item though. It could possibly serve a particular section of my garden and negate the need for multiple pipes everywhere
Jenny it sounds like a seep hose is potentially much better for my situation then. Winding it around a border would be SO much easier because I don't have square borders.
I guess it would also be very hard if you have the normal heavy clay too, like rock in the summer!