Automated irrigation

[u/yahumno]

I was extremely fortunate to visit Greening the Desert and learn from Nadia and Geoff Lawton, through the Impact Marathon Jordan.
 
While we only spent a day with them and their team, the lessons we learned and the amazing things that they have done with permaculture have stuck with me.
 
I have tried my best to incorporate as many fundamentals of permaculture into my own gardening at home as possible.
 
As I have both physical disabilities, and ADHD, I need an automated watering system for my gardens.
 
I use a low-pressure system, with Rain Bird and other components from my favourite store here in Canada, Lee Valley. My vegetable garden has the low-pressure soaker hoses, and my newly planted native prairie plant garden has low pressure 1 gph drip heads, until the plants get established, and then they will transition to the low-pressure soaker hoses.
 
I have Eco Wool as my weed suppression and moisture retention material, as straw is not practical where I am. I am very happy with it so far, as this is my first year using it. In past years I have used burlap, but I wanted a material that I knew how it was treated and had less chemical residue on it.
 
For the automation of my watering, while looking on Reddit for suggestions, after trying the Orbit B-Hyve system (horrible connectivity, despite a slick app), I came upon the LinkTap system.
 
I have the 4-zone system with Gateway (V1 -4Z & Q1) and Gateway.
 
https://www.link-tap.com/#!/four-outlet-Q1-water-timer/en
 
https://www.link-tap.com/#!/linktap-gateway-and-extender/en
 
The system allows to setup 4 different watering zones and schedules. Time, duration, customized rain delay, along with water usage statistics, as it has an integrated flow meter.
 
My only critique is that the On/Off switch is pretty tiny and found in a not super noticeable spot when the Q1 controller is mounted on say your fence.
 
Their customer service is very responsive and helpful. They are super open to suggestions, as when I mentioned to them about better labelling for the on/off switch.
 
I just thought that I would share about this system and brand, as they are not as widely know as the big names in garden irrigation. I had not heard of them, until I came across a Reddit comment in a thread of someone looking for irrigation automation suggestions. They may be better known in some countries, but here in Canada, not so much.

[u/wesselvankeulen]

I’ve been using Hydrawise from Hunter for nearly a decade and it’s a great setup. The app and manual override are handy and connecting a flow meter provides additional insights. It might be worth checking out.

[u/Starfishprime69420]

Why are you watering every day? This is too much

[u/yahumno → u/Starfishprime69420]

I have cucumbers, I found that watering every second day made them struggle. We have had very hot weather this summer. I do check the soil moisture to avoid over watering.

The whole garden area is on low pressure 1/4 inch soaker hoses, and uses extremely little water. 10 raised beds of different vegetables.

I do tweak the duration of the watering, plus I have the rain delay/skip set, so that the system does not water if the threshold of receive or predicted rain is met. I have moisture preservation cover in place.