I’m sitting here writing and trying to water my raised flower beds at the same time. It’s not easy doing both at once.
I’ve purchased several sprinklers over the last few years and I haven’t been happy with any of them. Not a one. They either throw the water out too far for my tiny yard, or barely water two or three feet of garden space.
When my parents passed away a couple of years ago, I decided that I wanted some of their sprinklers. So, right now I’m trying out the two I brought back from my parents house.
One is a little round head. It shoots the water upward like a fountain. It only covers at the most about three feet of space. At least with my poor water pressure any way. I used it to water the raspberries. I put it under a few of them and let the water shoot up between the raspberry plants. It seemed to work well enough, but to do all of my raised beds that way will take forever.
So I decided to try out the other sprinkler that I inherited. It has a curved bar that is horizontal. Their are water holes on either end and a couple of water holes in the middle of the bar. The water pressure is supposed to make this thing spin around. Unfortunately when I hooked it up to my hose it spluttered and gurgled and didn’t spin. So I got closer and moved it around myself and then ran away as the water started to pour out the ends.
Spin, spin, splutter, gurgle, spin, spin. Well, that ones covering about three feet of space too, but it’s flooding the flower bed.
I think that if I’m going to continue trying to write and water at the same time it’s going to take all night. Why is it so much faster to water by hand with the hose? Weren’t sprinklers invented so that we could water and do other activities at the same time? Why can’t I find a decent sprinkler?
Do anyone else have trouble with sprinklers?
Have you found one that works for you that you’d care to tell me about?
Ok, well, I’d better go out and move that darn thing over three feet or so.
Update 11:45 p.m. : I gave up with the sprinklers after trying a third one shaped something like the last one … it didn’t spin, it just shot water out the sides. So I ended up hand watering after all that wasted time. Really folks if you know of a good sprinkler that can be used in a small garden let me know!
I gave up with sprinklers and water all my raised beds with a hose – that way I get as much water on that I want and where I want….plus, it gives me a chance to have a few minutes peace (the husband watches the kids because “I need to go water the beds”)
I switched this year to a soaker hose, which works well, although I still have to do some hand-watering in the spots that it misses. It was also hard to lay down – I had to tack it with plastic spikes in some places. Next year I will lay down some more soakers to get better coverage. The hose waters at the root, which is better for plants, and was also easy on my water bill.
You should look into an irrigation sprinkler system. It can save a lot of labor once put in and can help keep things on a schedule.