When the owner of a property in Lower Shiplake decided to landscape the rear garden, he called upon the services of designer and contractor Grepne Landscaping. One of the major requirements of the project was a fully automatic irrigation system to protect the investment in plants and shrubs by ensuring they would receive the correct amount of water throughout the year, whatever the weather.
The new garden features a large central lawn, flower beds to either side stocked with perennials, shrubs and climbing border plants. There is a wild flower garden, an array of pots and planters as well as a feature composite decked area with a pergola. At the far end, an existing 60 foot flowering cherry tree has also been incorporated which blossoms spectacularly, but its root system absorbs huge amounts of water from the lawn and adjacent areas.
Site visits were arranged with Tom Grepne and Richard Jones of Rigby Taylor, Rain Bird UK distributor. The proposed solution featured multiple irrigation zones, each with its own solenoid valve, to provide irrigation for separate areas of the garden with differing watering requirements. The Rain Bird ESP- RZXe model was selected as the irrigation controller and was chosen for its flexible scheduling capabilities, ease of set-up and use. Zone based scheduling allows each valve to be scheduled independently with the easy to read LCD graphic display showing all the programming for each zone simultaneously. Rigby Taylor conducted flow tests and set up the programs on the controller which has been conveniently wall mounted in the garage. Irrigation is set for early each morning to prevent any evaporation during the course of the day.
With the Rain Bird LNK WiFi communication module installed, the ESP-RZXe links to both a rain sensor and the Rain Bird App on Ian’s phone. The rain sensor ensures unnecessary irrigation is prevented whilst the App gives Ian the convenience of overriding preset programs to make weather based adjustments and stop/start irrigation remotely from anywhere. For Tom Grepne, this was his first venture into the design and installation of an automatic irrigation system. “ It initially seemed daunting technology, but the assistance that Rigby Taylor provided in specifying the correct Rain Bird products and setting up the irrigation programming was first class.” Their irrigation experience was key to the specification of the correct products for the different zones including the lawn and wild flower area where the flowering cherry’s root system has a major impact.
Careful calculation of the precipitation rates and throw distance of sprinklers was required to ensure complete and uniform coverage. Discreet Rain Bird R-Van adjustable rotary nozzles with variable arc have been selected in combination with 1800 Series Pop-Up sprinklers of different body heights to give complete coverage. XFD Surface Dripline has been installed around the mulched borders to provide irrigation exactly where it is needed. A pressure regulator has been included to ensure the Dripline is protected from fluctuations in water pressure.