Irrigation Installation & Repairs — Bowden, Payneham & Adelaide's East

Irrigation installation Adelaide gardens are designed around

Irrigation is not a plumbing job to me; it is the thing that decides whether the plants live. As a horticulturist I design the system around what is planted: drip lines with the right emitter spacing for garden beds, pop-ups for lawn, separate zones for pots, natives and thirsty vegetables, and a timer programmed for Adelaide's seasons and watering rules. That is why most of my landscape design and turf clients have the irrigation installed as part of the job.

Systems installed and repaired

• Drip irrigation for garden beds, hedges, vegetable patches and pots
• Pop-up sprinkler zones for lawns
• Tap timers and multi-zone controllers, including programming and seasonal adjustment
• Repairs: blockages, leaks, split poly pipe, failed solenoids, broken pop-ups and missing emitters
• Converting old spray systems to efficient drip
• Flushing, pressure testing and a seasonal check-over for existing systems

Repairing a failing drip system

A lot of eastern-suburbs gardens have a drip system that was installed years ago and slowly stopped working: emitters clogged with Adelaide's hard water, a line cut by a spade, a timer nobody has reprogrammed since it was fitted. Often the fix is an afternoon's work rather than a new system. I diagnose first and only replace what has actually failed.

Designing zones that match the garden

The most common mistake in Adelaide irrigation is one zone for everything: the lawn, the hedge, the natives and the vegetable patch all on the same timer, so something is always too wet or too dry. A proper design separates plants with different needs. Lawns get pop-ups on their own station, hedges and screening plants get a drip line with closer emitters, natives get a sparse line that runs less often once they are established, and pots and vegetables get their own frequent, short cycle. Each zone is sized to the water pressure available at your tap so the last emitter on the line gets as much as the first.

Watering rules and timers

South Australia's permanent water-wise measures mean sprinklers on lawns and gardens are watered outside the hottest part of the day, and drip systems are the efficient way to stay within the rules while keeping plants alive through summer. I program the controller for the season, show you how to change it, and include a note on how long each zone should run in spring, summer and autumn. A seasonal check-over, flushing lines and replacing tired emitters, keeps the system reliable for years.

Where I install irrigation

From Norwood I cover Bowden, Payneham, Glynde, St Peters, Walkerville and Prospect to the north and west, and Burnside, Magill and Campbelltown to the east. The full service area runs up to Tea Tree Gully.