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July 20, 2009
Dripping Away My Time
We have a rather sophisticated drip irrigation system that delivers measured amounts of water in a scheduled manner to each individual plant in Shirley's garden.
You can see the small tube with a flow control terminator under a rather young azalea bush. I've drawn a red circle around the terminator. This bush actually has two such feeds, one on each side. The idea is to deliver just the right amount of water to roots of each plant and no water where there isn't a plant. The elongated brownish things are ash tree seeds. They are another story for another day. It is enough to say that during the spring and summer, Shirley removes them about once a month and our ash tree replaces them in great numbers on a continuing basis.
While it is Shirley's garden, I am in charge of irrigation. We have hundreds of these flow control terminators each with its own small feeder tube. Four larger tube systems feed the smaller tubes. One of these larger tubes cuts across the lower right corner of the picture. Each of the larger tube systems is in a separately timed zone with its own pressure regulator and filter. Yes, our plants drink only filtered water. The filter is supposed to increase the life of the flow control terminators. You couldn't prove it by my experience and they need to be replaced on a fairly regular basis.
It would be nearly impossible for me to deliver water by hand to the plants with the efficiency and accuracy of this system. But if I tried, I would spend four or five hours a week holding a hose. The system spares me that exact annoyance. It replaces it with another, four or five hours a week repairing, otherwise servicing, and upgrading the system. And it seems even longer when it's 100° out. Breakdowns never happen in the shade.
Posted by Duane Smith at July 20, 2009 3:31 PM | Read more on Odds and Ends |
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Comments
um...okay
Posted by: Jordan Wilson at July 20, 2009 5:26 PM
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