Garden Watering Equipment
Watering your plants is one of the most important gardening tasks. For plants, a good drink can be the difference between life and death. That’s why a good garden hose and watering equipment are key to gardening success. Thankfully, we have everything you need to ensure your garden is always well watered. Choose from humble watering cans, sprinklers, sprayers and hose fittings, to tap timers, tap controllers and irrigation systems.
Irrigation supplies: everything you need to water your garden
For plants, a good drink can be the difference between life and death, so watering your plants is one of the most important tasks you can do in your garden. That’s why a good garden hose and irrigation supplies are key to gardening success.
Luckily, we have everything you need to ensure your garden is always well watered. Choose from humble watering cans, sprinklers, sprayers and hose fittings, to more advanced tap timers, tap controllers and irrigation systems.
Got questions? Our expert horticulturalists can advise you on the best way to water your garden and the best equipment to do it with.
Why do plants need water?
Well, all living things need water to stay alive! Plants need much more water than many other living things as they are about 90 per cent water. The amount of water a plant needs depends on factors including the type of plant, how much light the plant gets, the season and how old the plant is.
When plants aren’t getting enough water, they wilt. This is because it is water pressure inside the cells of the plant that makes up the plant’s skeleton, in a system called turgor.
Water enters a plant through its roots and travels up its stem to its leaves. When a plant is properly hydrated, there is enough water pressure to make the stem and leaves strong and sturdy; and equally, when a plant doesn't get enough water, the pressure inside the stems and leaves drops and they wilt.
Plants also need water for photosynthesis – the process through which they create their food. Water enters a plant through its roots and travels up its stem to its leaves, where photosynthesis takes place. From here, the plant exchanges water, which evaporates, for carbon dioxide, in a process called transpiration.
Transpiration only occurs during the day when there is sunlight, which is why you often find dew on plants in the morning. The plant has been pulling water into the leaves all night, but transpiration can’t occur so the water just remains on the leaves as dew. Transpiration also helps to cool the plant just like we sweat in the heat; in the same way we need more water in the heat, your plants will too, so fill up your watering can and give your plants a drink
How to use a garden hose sprayer
Hose-end sprayers are one of the most useful irrigation supplies, great for spraying liquid garden products such as insecticides or fertilisers. They’re more efficient and more controllable than a watering can, but you’ll need to have a good idea of how they work or you’ll do more harm than good to your plants, so this is how to use a garden hose sprayer.
A hose-end sprayer is a great tool that lets you mix a liquid product with water from a hose and instantly sprays it out over your garden. When you turn the sprayer on, water moves through the spray head, creating a suction effect that pulls the liquid product up the tube to the top of the spray head where it mixes with the water and gets sprayed out.
Many garden hose sprayers have a function that lets you only spray water if that’s what you need. Adjustable hose-end sprayers have a dial that allows you to choose from a gentle mist to a good soaking, and many will let you adjust the ratio of water to product.
Before you start spraying, get an approximate idea of the total area (in square metres) that is going to be sprayed by multiplying length by width, then use the packet instructions to figure out how much of the product you should use.
Attach your garden hose to the sprayer and turn it to the water-only setting while you get the pressure right – aim for about half pressure and adjust from there. Walk slowly through your gardens or across your lawn, moving your arm in a horizontal window washer movement to coat all areas around you.
Check often to see how much of the product you’ve used and whether it’s too much or too little of what you calculated. If it’s too little, you’ll probably need to walk slower or make a smaller window washer movement to get a better coating. If you’ve used too much, you may need to walk faster or make a bigger window washer movement.
If you’ve used nothing at all, check to see that the siphon tube isn’t kinked or clogged
How to hang a garden hose
There is nothing more annoying than the experience of untangling a hose in order to water the garden, and knowing that it’s entirely your fault the hose is tangled.
A garden hose holder keeps your garden hose neatly wound up to prevent it from getting tangled and avoiding damage to your hose (and your Saturday afternoon). Installing a holder on the side of your home keeps the garden hose up off the ground, places it within reach without the need to stoop, and stops it getting tangled among the grass. Some even have an auto-retract function, to pull it back in and wind it automatically.
If you can’t figure out how to hang a garden hose holder, or you don’t want to, you should still loop it and hang it off the ground – around a fence paling is good, or over a tree branch. Anything will do, really, as long as it stops your garden hose from lying in a tangled mess.
For all the irrigation supplies you need for your garden – from a watering can to a nozzle on a timer – check out our range online or visit us in-store to one of our 10 Sydney garden centres plus one in the Hunter region.