Drip Irrigation - a boon for urban gardeners

For whom

You could consider Drip Irrigation to be installed for your garden, if :

• You are elderly/senior citizen and cannot physically lift / move the heavy/tangled hose pipes.
• You do not have a gardener, or you do not like to depend on someone to water your plants.
• You are a busy person, but still love to maintain a garden at home.
• You are regularly away from home for days together/ travel a lot from office, which is stopping you to own a garden.
• You have health issues, which does not allow you to lift weights or climb the stairs on daily basis.
• You love to have a garden, but you are lazy by nature and don't want too much work on your hands. 

Whatever may be your reason, our aim is to let the plants keep growing and these reasons not to stop you from having a home kitchen garden.

Does it decrease the "closeness" you have with your garden?

You may argue that we feel closer to nature when we water the plants on our own, because we get to spend the time there physically, it is a form of exercise and the best way to get fresh oxygen early in the morning (Believe me, I said the same too earlier to others), but at the same time, thinking practically, I did not want to stop gardening nor wanted to depend on someone to water my plants because I could not on few days, nor I could see my plants die!

Why did I go for a Drip Irrigation System?

I am a working person, and recently got additional responsibilities and change in job role and on it, I indulge in multiple extra activities (my 1 hour exercise routine, yoga classes, bag making, quilt making, kitchen gardening, giving workshops on composting, cooking, and also cleaning the house now and then - I am sure I have OCD by now :-P ) and over the period of 2 years of starting my garden, balancing all of them got challenging, which showed up on my health (back ache) and eventually on my "once upon a time" beautiful garden! :-(

I enjoyed gardening because gardening was one of the best stress buster for an overly active person as me. I loved observing the plants, touching them, talking to them, watering them; I started off with water cans due to the small number of pots and when they increased, moved to garden hose.

My kitchen garden is on the 2nd floor, I would go twice a day to water them during peak summer time, as the plants would all wither off due to the extreme sun. I never believed in getting drip irrigation for my garden, until a stage came when I could not climb the stairs due to the back ache and when I was getting better after 2 weeks, I was in shock (I was hoping the Rain God would have saved them) to see all of my plants had died. It was so so disappointing to see. I was mourning on this incident for about a week and realized that now that I have come till here in my kitchen garden journey, I cannot stop growing further, so take an action to rectify this!

My garden pic, BEFORE the crises

Harvests before crises

My garden pics, AFTER the crises

Once a gardener, always a gardener

I realized that gardening has reached so deep into my cells! My friends too started asking as to why my posts in the OTG group has decreased in recent times. I was silent there, because I did not have anything to show, which made me feel so bad.

Water is an important and essential ingredient for the plants and I could not always pray for the Rain God to shower blessings in my difficult times of unable to water them. I immediately started researching the options on Drip Irrigation, as now I started looking at this concept as an investment, than a "Fisool Kharch" (unnecessary spending) and that would steal me away from my garden.

Not just a normal drip, but a "smart" drip

With the technology growing, we are lucky to have some things that ease our life.

This concept did not just have the normal water drip setup, but there were additional options to :

• Schedule the watering via mobile phone (with wifi enabled smart plug). 
• Modify or add a new schedule in the app. 
• No worries even if you do not have a smart phone for apps - they have an additional plug with buttons to schedule.
• I could now add the organic liquid fertilizers (Panchagavya, Bokashi Leachate, Jeevamruth etc) into the 100 ltr blue drum that comes along the installation, which would take care of supplying it to all my plants. I need not spray it with my effort of manually pumping the water sprayer to all the 100 plants.  (think of the amount of time and lifting I would be saving)
• I could now travel out of station for days, without worrying of what would happen to my plants  as it is scheduled and it will turn ON and OFF automatically without my interaction.
• Oh and it is not just the drip nozzel, we also had the option to use sprinklers and seperators (specially useful for greens and wider containers where the normal drip would not reach all the seeds)
• One of the best thing is that we need not invest on this at the same time, we could keep extending it when required so that your don't feel burdened about $$ at the same time.
• Now I will also be accountable for the amount of water I would be using for my garden and simply do not let it go waste by over-watering.

Pics of the setup

The blue drum, where I can just pour the organic liquid fertilizers, which will be carried to all the plants.

Water would be filtered from the tap and led to the drum

The ballcock, to prevent water overflowing from the drum. I could directly pour the organic liquid fertilizer into this drum.

I cant wait to try my hands on giving liquid fertilizers to my plants this way!

The "Smart Plug" which is wifi enabled and is scheduled via app. I just have to keep it switched ON and do nothing more.

The schedule on the App on Android Phone, which can be modified anytime.

The sprinklers for wider containers

Sprinkler for wider containers

Am I separating myself from the garden by introducing this stuff?

No , this does not mean that I will not be visiting my garden any more. I still have to de-weed, check on the pests, prune, and also click pictures and upload to OTG group right? ;-) 

Now I can concentrate more on improving my back and deal with other things in life and at the same time, not feel guilty of stopping my OTG obsession. I now feel confident about my garden and I wish to see my garden flourish once more like before!

Wish me luck guys :-)

I wish to see my garden flourish once more like before!

DIY Setup

Of course, if you have the patience, time and skills, you could always go the DIY way to reduce the cost. 

While researching, I found that a DIY kit is available here. 

If you reside in Bangalore, a good place to get the products separately for a cheaper price would be SP Road.

Considerations for drip to reach from point A to Z

The reach of water depends on 

1. height of the tank

2. water motor's power

3. the elevation of the ground on which the pipes would lie. 

4. other types of outlets attached than normal drip (example sprinkler,emitter)

Drip recommended for greens

A normal drip might not reach all the greens in the potting mix. Specially during germination time. 

Ensure your potting mix contains porous material (cocopeat or fine compost) so that it retains water and spreads it to other parts of the pot. 

As an alternate, you could use a SPRINKLER or an EMITTER for this purpose. Check below videos to see how it works : 

Drip irrigation - recommended SPRINKLER for greens (on OTG) 

Drip irrigation - recommended EMITTER for greens (on OTG)

However note that when these sprinklers and emitters are used, the power of water to reach further decreases. So, ensure you have a powerful motor (power depends on the length of pipe, elevation etc again) or install a seperate pipe for emitters/sprinklers.

Disclaimer : There are multiple drip irrigation vendors in the market. If you would like to go the DIY way, the information is above. Also Checkout OTG Commercial Posting page, here and here. 

I got it done by Smart Gardens ; Their contact details are here.