Installing The Watering System (Riego Por Goteo). At last!!

Last Sunday was certainly a day to celebrate. We installed the drip irrigation system!! How exciting. A few years ago I never would have dreamed that this rather boring task could make me so profoundly happy.

I know, it’s rather sad but the joy I feel from knowing that I won’t have to set aside 2 hours every 3 days (and sometimes more often) to water all the veggie plants and fruit trees, as well as all the herbs, plants and cacti, is tremendous. I must admit, we have been lucky this year with all the rain we’ve had, normally we’ve got it up and running mid May, but it was starting to get a tad tedious all the same.

We have 3 separate plots to set up, the bottom one with all the tomato plants, peppers (pimientos), aubergines (berenjenas), broccoli (brócoli), courgettes (calabacines), melons (melones), watermelons (sandías) and onions (cebollas) (I might be missing something), and 2 smaller plots by the side of the house where the pumpkin plants (calabaceras), fruit trees, cucumbers (pepinos), cauliflowers (coliflores) and “ficossos” (a Valenciano word for a type of cucumbery thing that is actually part of the melon family, alficoz in Spanish) are. The process would take most of the day but is so definitely worth it.

Pep has decided this year to elevate the irrigation system hoses where possible, mainly due to the fact that when they’re on the ground underneath all the mulch that’s around the plant, you can’t see if the emitter is dripping or not. They can sometimes get clogged up, and if you don’t check them regularly your plants become rather thirsty. If they’re elevated you can easily see if the water is dripping from them. He’s not sure if it’s a good idea yet but it makes sense to me.

He can only elevate the hoses if there is a cane in the ground with the plant. Certain plants (tomatoes, peppers, aubergines) usually need to be tied to a cane or similar, if you don’t tie them up you run the risk of the plant breaking on windy days, like today!!
All the other plants had to have the watering system on the ground, it would have been too time consuming to put canes with them all and then tie the hoses on and to be honest, we couldn’t be bothered.

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It was thirsty work so it was time for refreshments. I went inside to make a mint lemonade, a super simple way to cool down. Mix the juice of one lemon in a glass with one tablespoon of raw cane sugar or any other sweetener (I find raw cane sugar to be best as it’s flavour isn’t overpowering). Add 7 or 8 fresh spearmint leaves and squash them a bit with a spoon so they release some of their oils. Add 2 or 3 ice cubes and top up with water, either still or fizzy. Delish. I serve with a metal straw that has a little spoony thing on the end, that way you can keep stirring the drink so the sugar gets mixed in. You can alternatively warm the lemon juice beforehand and melt the sugar that way. Metal straws are a brilliant idea, they can be put in the dishwasher to clean and you’re not disposing of any of that horrible plastic.

Moving on. Our tomato plants (tomateras) are growing rather rapidly at the moment, I swear they grow at least 3 inches each day. So before we ventured up to the two top plots to carry on installing the watering system we had to add more canes to be able to tie them up as they grow. At the same time we check to see how the tomatoes are coming on. I can’t wait for them to be ready!!!! All fruit and veg that are home grown will obviously taste a thousand times better than store bought but the tomato is something else. I don’t eat tomatoes until we have our own or are given some by somebody else who grows them, it’s just not worth it. Sorry if I sound like a tomato snob but for those of you who grow your own, you know what I mean. And if you don’t grow your own you should give it a go. You won’t regret it!!

So with our tomato plants sorted we went up to the other two plots to finish the installation. Thankfully it doesn’t take quite as long as the bottom plot, it’s a smaller area and there aren’t as many plants to water.
Once it was all set up it was time to turn it on, make sure everything was working and set the timers (temporizadores). At the beginning of living here Pep installed various taps around the land to be able to supply all the plants with water. If there were only one or two taps the pressure wouldn’t be enough to water everything. Thankfully, before Pep started teaching he used to be a plumber and electrician. This man has so many good points!!

Once we’d checked all the emitters, added some where needed, turned the ones off where not needed and the cats had had their fill of water, it felt like cause for celebration! We decided to go for a quick walk to stretch our legs after crouching down for most of the day. It was a lovely evening for it, after a hard day’s work it’s so nice to have a stroll in the campo and enjoy the late afternoon sun. We really do live in a beautiful part of the world.

For those of you who are wondering what happened to the rose bush that Pep bought me when he came back with all those fruit trees, we’ve just now planted it. According to the moon calendar it had to be done today between 3 and 4, thankfully that’s pm, not am. So it now has it’s own little patch to thrive in. We made sure there were no nasty magnetic fields crossing here too, you can’t be too careful!!

Well, that’s all for today folks. As always, if you have any suggestions or questions please don’t hesitate to contact us. See you soon, love Georgie and Pep xxx

P.S I keep meaning to say if you click on any of the photos on our blog they will enlarge so you can get a better look at things.