Water is precious!!!!

Well i have just seen the best idea at a property i did some work at today. It's brilliant.
Under the taps in this garden they had gud and pit, lined it with bricks and then concreted over this to make it hold water. This means when ever the tap is turned on water is caught and this pit fills up.
It means if you need to clean your hands quite often you don't even need to turn on the tap.
It also gives, birds and other wildlife access to cool water.

The inspiration! water held in pit below tap.

So yesterday afternoon I found a large terracotta pot and burried it under the tap near the orchard in my back garden. It had been chucked out by my neighbour on hard rubbish because it had a crack in it. I used sellastic to seal this crack and also to stick a large rock over the bottom drain hole in the put. This has meant the pot now holds water, and everytime I wash my hands after gardening the water is now recycled instead of just seeping away!!!

My take on the one I saw. The chooks love it.

Now that the days are getting warmer i wanted to get the irrigation set up once and for all in the back garden orchard. I decided to move the tap which i had placed inside the chook pen so I dug it up and moved it to the end of the middle row post in the orchard.

I have ordered a 25m Hoselink retractable hose reel and this will be mounted on the post above the tap. This will allow the hose to reach anywhere in the back garden.

I got given an end of a roll of good quallity 13mm soaker hose. I cut three lengths and lay them down at the base of the fruit trees. I then used 13mm polly pipe at the ends to join these togeather. So at the end using T joiners and corner joiners I ended up with the three rows of soaker hose joined at both ends, Think a continuous closed circuit. When this was done I cut the 13mm polly pipe near the tap and used a T joiner to join garden hose to connect the irrigation system to the tap.  By making it a full circuit it means even pressure is obtained the full length of each row.

Irrigation set up, Tap now on post on left.
Polly pipe between post at end of rows are now burried.

The soaker hose was left above the ground laying at the base of the rows of trees. The polly pipe joining the soaker hose at each end of the rows was burried under ground so it dosen't pose a tripping hazard.

So now I can turn on the tap and all trees are watered at once. The soaker hose is now covered with straw to reduce evapouration.