Gardena "Micro Drip" irrigation system

 

Hi,

I've decided to grasp the nettle this year and put in an automatic
watering system, mainly to keep things ticking over when I'm away
without having to bother anyone else.

It's a small urban garden: small lawn (about 5m x 3m) surrounded by
beds with some pots and planters on the patio (and possibly some
window boxes to be included). Anyway, I've just had a look online at
the Gardena "Micro Drip" irrigation system (which seems quite
expensive). Any comments - does its quality justify the expense, or
can I do it better cheaper?

Cheers!

Martin

 



Keep an eye open for the ads at Aldi and Lidl they sell the kit and timers
usually just at the start of the growing season.Suitable for greenhouse and
small beds use we have tried allsorts it all  does work.Just takes a little
time to set up so the drips run evenly or you tend to get an odd one that
floods and another with no feed. see
http://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/categories/search/hoses-couplers-valves-filters  
for comparison last time the aldi timer was 1/2 that price but the Micro kit
was about the same.

Derek

 

I had a Gardena automatic watering system at my last house and,
although it worked OK, it was an absolute pain to set up. They did a
fantastic job of making it look simple on the pack but, when I opened
the box, I was faced with dozens of little plastic bits that all
looked the same. I think it took about six hours to set up and then
even longer 'tinkering' to get all of the drippers working as I
wanted.

I too have an 'urban' garden in my current house, with mostly pots and
hanging baskets. Last summer I bought a Hozelock AquaPod system and
it's brilliant! It took about 10 mins to set up and has automatic
drippers so there was no tinkering involved. The kit came with two
'pods' and a timer, plus I bought another couple of pods to add on.
Each pod has five drippers (from memory) but the pods link together if
you need to add more (my system looked after about 15-20 pots last
year but I'll be adding more soon).

Another good point is that it only took 5 mins to pack away once my
pots had gone over, whereas I had to leave the Gardena system out all
through the winter.

Good luck with whichever system you choose.

 

On 2008-02-15 13:07:48 +0000, matt.lawrance@googlemail.com said:


I wlll add my 2p in favour of the Hozelock AquaPod system. I have a
couple set up to water plants in my porch all year round and they
haven't missed a beat since last summer. Couldn't have been easier to
set up - unlike the kits that I've seen from Gardena and Hozelock. The
AquaPod pull-out microbore hoses are very neat but I would have liked
them to be a tad longer. Meanwhile, I just group my containers around
the pods.