Come Into the Garden, Maude

It has been a while since I last blogged in some detail about my garden. And that is really because not much has changed since the construction of the raised bed (which gave a magnificent display of Sweet peas). However I recently indulged my Inner Geek and bought a gadget, which allowed me to construct an automatic watering system to take care of the Hanging baskets and greenhouse tomatoes during my holiday in Cumbria and any other absences that might arise.

The Brain

This distributes water through a network of small pipes to the hanging baskets

Can you see the pipes?

"Tom Thumb" tomatoes in an hanging basket

Not the most elegant soloution for getting the water to the greenhouse

In the greenhouse, toms grown in a growbag and ring get watered by drippers

A separate pipe runs round to the front of the house to water the basket and tubs by the front door. The whole system runs for 15 minutes each day, and I only need to water a couple of tubs that aren’t on the system. It is much more efficient and much less wasteful of water than taking a hose pipe around, and far easier than dragging the watering can around, though once a week I use a liquid feed attachment on the hose-pipe to give everything a good feed.

These begonias are not on the "water main" and so need manual watering.

If I’m still around next summer, I’ll look at extending and improving the system. There are an almost bewildering array of accessories for the system, from large-bore pipes to form a ‘backbone’ to mini-sprinklers and automatic feeding attachments too.