Automatic Watering System

[mark]

Has anybody installed an automatic watering system here in Kalkan?  I am thinking of doing this for my garden apartment and, if successful, for our whole site.  Reason is to reduce water usage, save money, and reduce the amount of time spent watering the grounds. 

I would be interested in any experiences others have and whether there are suppliers of the porous hose or drip watering systems here in Turkey.

On a related topic, one of our residents has mentioned that the 'lawn' ground cover plant (dichondra) typically used here requires a lot of water and hence the ground becomes a perfect place to breed the biting insects.  A suggested alternative for some of our site would be wood chips which would retain moisture as well.  Has anybody had any experience with this here in Turkey?  I notice the playgrounds do not use them.

Thanks for any suggestions.

Mark

Linkback: https://www.enjoykalkan.com/forum/index.php?topic=4476.0

[Cosetta]

We have about 1000 m2 of dichondra and have ourselves installed a basic watering system that uses both sprinklers and drip hoses.  You can buy timers for about TL 240 but they are much cheaper in the US / UK for the same thing.  There is also a landscaper in Fethiye who will install a system for about 500% what it will cost if you do it yourself.

You can buy all the drip hose (unpunched) and accessories in any store supplying greenhouses, the closest is in Kinik.  Fethiye has many.  We got most of our sprinkler heads in Fethiye, although I imported some Hunter rotator sprinklers from the US.

Dichondra does indeed require a large amount of water, thus our water bill is very high.  We thought of changing our grass to a kind that requires less water but already having a large area covered and mature for years, for us it would cost too much to change it.  Also, all other kinds of grasses need moving, dichondra doesn't.  You only need to give it water and some nitrogen fertilizer (goat manure is good but unfortunately will bring you big problems of weeds and army worms).

I have looked and never found any kind of mulch here or even in Antalya.  Maybe someone else knows, I would love to find some too.

[rosarioguy]

Where can you buy Dichondra? Is it in seed form or small plants and how much does it cost?

Thanks

[Cosetta]

Dichondra is seed.  It costs between TL 60 - 80 / kilo.  We buy it in Fethiye but you can ask Suleiman in the garden center across from Yali to get you some FRESH seed.  You need to cover it with a thin layer of soil to protect it from both birds and wind, and of course, you must keep it moist until it starts to grow.  Meaning, 2x daily watering for a couple of weeks, if very cool, maybe only 1x / day.

[Rosie]

Mark

I have quite a large area which is covered with dichondra and have never seen any evidence of it being a 'breeding ground for insects' due to amount of watering and that includes mossies. It usually requires daily watering, but can go without for a day or so if necessary as it recovers very quickly and watering usually takes place during the cooler part of the day to benefit it properly.

I agree with Cosetta that when first sown it will need watering twice a day until it is sufficiently thick enough.

From my own experience of sowing late February/March it was a good time to take advantage of any rainy weather reducing water usage but without being too cold for the seedlings.

I also agree that goat manure is the best to feed it, particularly when seeds are first sown. But you will need quite a lot to cover properly. When the seeds have grown up sufficiently enough you will be able to spot the weeds quite easily. These do need to be taken out individually ensuring the whole root is lifted (a small garden knife helps to lift it out). This is a labour of love but if kept up while the plants are growing the dichondra will spread out quickly making it more difficult for weeds to grow.

There was a decent coverage in the garden after about 4 months and a year later there was very little weeding to do, the majority is now done in spring time along with the usual spring gardening jobs.

The result is a low maintenance good looking garden that just requires watering along with the rest of the plants and shrubs. I haven't noticed that it uses more water than normal grass, quite the opposite in fact and without the hassle of mowing! 

[Cosetta]

We first planted our dichondra in late October of 2003 so it is now 6 years old.  For the first several years it was relatively weed-free.  But over the past couple of years, due primarily to unsterilized goat manure, it has developed 3 types of weeds -- dodder, a yellow plant parasite, a wild clover that is stronger than dichondra and overgrows it and another very tall weed with strong, deep roots nearly impossible to get out -- these are literally taking over the dichondra in spite of our constant weeding (our gardener spends about 10 hrs / week just weeding the dichondra, but our garden is 1000 m2).

We will have to start over within 2-3 years, I'm sure.  We have considered alternative grasses but the kind that requires the least water is not available here.

I was recently told that you can buy ready strips of planted grass in garden shops in Antalya but I don't know which or where.

[mark]

Thank you all for your informative replies here and PMs.  So, maybe my best approach would be to go for the auto watering system but keep the dichondra for the first year to see how it goes. 

I agree that the benefit of an automated system would be to water in the cooler part of the day so that less is lost to evaporation.

Thanks again - will check out suppliers in Kinik and Fetiyeh.

Mark

[Rosie]

Mark
I'm all for saving money, time and water usage, so I would be very interested to find out how you get on with your search for automated watering system i.e products, price and where to buy. Please keep us posted.

[mark]

Will post anything I find on here.  However, I am returning to London in a week and will not be back (with Hozelock or similar controllers) until December.

Mark