Summer is around the corner and anyone with a garden knows that their condition is affected by high temperatures. Watering is essential in order to keep your garden maintained and bright with colour, not just at this time of year but right through the year.

In other articles on our blog, we’ve advised you on how to care for your garden, and also given you a few tips on looking after your lawn. In this post, we’ll help you to find out about and choose the right watering system for your garden.

As we said before, watering is essential to keep your garden in nice condition, so you need to install a good watering system and know what’s best for you. Here at Jaype, we offer a service whereby we visit your home to conduct a professionally designed watering system and comprehensive analysis of everything needed in the way of materials and accessories that are right for the area and vegetation. We also carry out a hydraulic simulation to ensure that the watering system is totally efficient and can also save you water.

For this, the first thing you need to know is that there are 3 types of watering systems for your garden:

• Localised drip-system
• Nozzles
• Sprinklers

Each of these has different functions with various types of application depending on your garden. Below, we’ll provide answers for your most FAQs:

Which watering system saves the most water?

This is one of the most frequent questions. However, we recommend that you are not just guided by this factor, as each system is adapted to specific garden requirements. Localised irrigation is, though, definitely the most water saving, with a system that waters at low pressure and focuses on the root area of the plants and thus boosts their growth underground rather than on the surface. This system is primarily used for bushes, trees, hedging and plants in beds. The other systems are more suitable for large areas, such as lawn, which need more water and thus incur more consumption.

What is the best system for a large garden?

Nozzles and sprinklers are undoubtedly better for large gardens. The former is for sections of grass of under 500 m², as these have a 4.5 m radius making it necessary to install a lot of sprinklers and sections. Sprinklers, however, are better for large sections of lawn that exceed 500 m². They normally have a radius of 10 m and are also used for areas with tall grass. Nozzles are easier to calibrate than sprinklers and, apart from their reach, sprinklers need their turn adjusted so that they cover the required surface.

And what about a small garden?

The most convenient system for small gardens is localised drip-feed. There are two different ones you should know about:

• Drip-feed watering system: this is a good system for all sorts of garden plants needing water at the roots.
• Micro sprinkler system: this system sprays a curtain of water drops at close distance. It is better for thick bushes, ground covered with herbs and plants needing specific humidity conditions and foliar spraying, such as flowers.

Therefore, the best type of watering for a small garden will depend on the type of vegetation in it.

Which system is easier to install?

This is another important factor like the saving of water, but it isn’t complicated to choose from as both systems adapt to your garden’s particular functions and requirements. Drip-feed is definitely easier to install, as all it needs is hosing with micro tubes and built-in or on-line drippers to be placed in the plant areas.

However, watering with nozzles or sprinklers is a bit harder to install as the pipe system needs to be underground. This type of system should be based on a project with a plan of the surface to water and a design to suit specific requirements.

As you can see, both of these systems have their pros and cons, but they each work for a different type of garden and size.

What happens to the watering if I’m away on holiday?

You don’t need to ask your neighbour to pop in and water your plants or the garden, or worry about coming back to a dry garden. The best solution for this is to install a watering system with a programmer. Jaype works with all the leading brands on the market, who resolve these irrigation problems with a range of electric or battery-operated timers that you can programme from your mobile or tablet on the Rain bird IQ platform. You can activate the sprinklers from your sun bed on the beach, or check the whole activity log at the end of the day.

We hope that our article has helped you to choose the best watering system for your garden. We are always happy to give you advice and offer our products and services so that your garden looks its best. For more information on our services and tips, follow us on our blog.