Background
As well as working on many famous commercial projects, we are also regularly involved with a wide variety of interesting private garden projects. Some of these being the gardens of holiday let properties – this case study featuring one such example. The property was located within the heart of the beautiful Lake District National Park, and boasted a large rear garden, which included a substantial lawn, planted borders, and pots, plus a lower-level patio at the end of the garden featuring large, individual planters. The property also featured planted borders running around its front boundary, as well as several hanging baskets located at the front of the house.
The Garden Irrigation Project
Access Irrigation were responsible for the design and supply of the complete Lake District Garden Irrigation system watering the lawn, planted borders, pots, and planters. The system was fully automated, using a highly reliable Hunter Hydrawise Pro-HC Wi-Fi controller, enabling the irrigation system to be operated remotely from any location, via the highly convenient, easy-to-use App. In addition, the controller will even rapidly, automatically, adjust irrigation schedules based on local weather data, enabling substantial savings in water use. The controller was also supplied with a Hydrawise flow meter which enables the ability to detect, monitor, and report critical flow zone data and total system flows, thereby allowing the user to view water consumption and alerting the user if part of the underground supply pipe is damaged for example. Therefore, the controller and flow meter were particularly beneficial for a holiday let property such as this, allowing the owner a complete overview of how the system was operating and performing, and providing the ability to alter the system remotely at any time.
To comply with the Water Regulations, the Lake District Garden Irrigation system included a pre-assembled pump and tank pressure booster unit. The 1,250-litre tank included a Type AB air gap to prevent backflow into the public mains and was supplied with a float valve inlet, to prevent the tank from overfilling by automatically closing the tank inlet when the water level raises the float valve too high. Another benefit of using a tank means that the system can provide a substantially higher flow than if only being run from the mains, due to the reservoir of water stored inside the tank. The pressurised water supply to the system was provided by a Divertron submersible pump housed inside the tank, designed to operate as soon as pressure drops. This pump has built-in dry running protection to prevent it from running if there is a water shortage thereby protecting it from damage. The pressure booster unit was located at the far-left side of the rear garden, to ensure it was discreetly tucked out of view.
Garden Irrigation Control
Hunter PGV solenoid valves were used to split the system into 6 separate zones, allowing each zone to operate at a separate time and duration according to separate watering requirements, thereby enabling efficient watering for each zone. The solenoid valves were housed in two underground valve boxes, which for convenience were located at two separate locations within the soft planting of the garden – one located next to the pressure booster unit in the rear garden, and the other located in the front garden. The valve boxes were connected to the controller via multi-core signal cable and connected to the pressure booster unit via MDPE supply pipe. Both the signal cable and MDPE supply pipe were housed in underground trenches – being buried 300mm below the surface, to ensure protection from overhead foot traffic and frost.
Each solenoid valve is opened and closed in sequence by the controller. When the first valve opens, the pump detects a drop in pressure (due to pressure release from the open valve) and will begin to operate to boost the pressure back up again. This will cause water to flow through the first (now open) solenoid valve to water the first zone. The controller closes the first valve, and immediately opens the next valve in the sequence. Once the last valve has closed, the water flow will cease, pressure will build again, and the pump will stop operating.
Garden Lawn Watering
The lawn was watered in 2 zones using sophisticated Hunter PGP ultra rotary popup sprinklers
. Popup sprinklers drop into the lawn below the mowing level when not in use, enabling them to be completely hidden from view. They have a substantial watering distance ranging from 5.2m to 14.0m radius, and an arc adjustment ranging from watering a thin 50º area, all the way up to a 360º full circle, this fantastic versatility in spray distance and angles allowing them to be used in a wide variety of situations. Compression tees were used to tee up from the 25mm MDPE underground supply pipe running from the valve box outlet to beneath the location of each sprinkler, with swing joints connecting between the tee outlets and the base of the sprinkler inlet (elbows being used instead of tees for the final sprinkler on the run). The swing joints enable the sprinklers to be elevated to the correct height above the supply pipe, so they conveniently sit just below the mowing level when not in use. The PGP Ultra is very well built and protected by a heavy-duty plastic construction with vandal-proof drive mechanism and thick rubber cover. Hunter popup sprinklers are renowned for their quality and feature a ‘top-down’ design that allows all servicing to be carried out from above – preventing the lawn from being damaged.
Garden Border Watering
The planted borders of the Lake District Garden Irrigation system were watered in 2 zones, using highly efficient Permadrip-Pro dripline. Permadrip-Pro is a brown coloured dripline perfectly designed for landscape irrigation. It has a slim, 16mm pipe diameter and a wall thickness of 1.2mm. The 1.6 l/h drip emitters built into the pipe wall are pressure compensating, ensuring uniform output over a wide pressure range and include a built-in anti-siphon mechanism, to prevent dirt being sucked into the drippers at the end of the watering cycle. The emitters also have a large inlet filter and unique, continually self-cleaning design, providing excellent resistance to blockages. 20mm MDPE underground supply pipe ran from the valve box outlets, to the locations just beneath the dripline, with 20mm tees used to spur off from the pipe, with additional 20mm pipe travelling upwards from the tee outlets, to just below the surface. A compression elbow was then used to pop up just above the surface (much like a submarine periscope), to connect to the dripline via a pozilock tee fitting, enabling dripline to run to the left and right.
Hanging Basket Watering
The hanging baskets, pots, and large individual planters were watered in 2 zones using individual drippers. For the zone including the hanging baskets and pots, small bore 6mm soft walled supply pipe ran from the 20mm MDPE pipe take off points using the 20mm compression elbows mentioned for the dripline zone above, these elbows 
connected to a barbed 6mm pipe fitting on the surface for the 6mm pipe to run from. The 6mm pipe was fixed discreetly along the walls using pipe clips at regular intervals. The drippers used here were ‘tee’ drippers – having a horizontal barbed inlet and outlet connected inline on the 6mm pipe run, and then a downward barbed outlet which included the dripper nozzle, with additional 6mm pipe connected to this outlet and then anchored securely in each hanging basket and pot using a small anchorage stake. For the zone including the large individual planters, 20mm soft walled supply pipe ran from the 20mm MDPE pipe take off points, passing the planters, with a hole being punched in the pipe at intervals to then run to the individual drippers on 6mm pipe to anchor in the planters. Due to the two systems separate watering requirements, drippers with a lower flow of 1.2 l/h were used for watering the hanging baskets and pots, and drippers with a higher flow of 8 l/h were used for watering the large individual planters, ensuring that they received sufficient water.
Lake District Garden Irrigation – The Result
The Lake District Garden Irrigation system we supplied has resulted in a lush, green, and colourful garden. This has not only provided the holiday let customers with a relaxing garden to enjoy while they de-stress and unwind, but has also provided the owner with the ability to monitor and control the watering at all times, providing complete peace of mind that their garden is flourishing even though they’re many miles away.
