Low pressure drip irrigation

So - I twisted my ankle last Sunday carrying the newly ironed washing up the stairs, so Ive been immobile on the sofa most of the week, with only the internet & my credit cards for company.. a dangerous combination !

One of the things that Ive been thinking about for a while was some sort of automated system to water the veg patch fed from the water butts out the back (I have no easy access to an outside tap that end of the house - its a hosepipe thru the livingroom job) - so I ordered a click & drip system from greenhousesensations

First job was to fit the hozelock style tap to the existing waterbutt. Its surprisingly difficult to empty a waterbutt whilst standing on one leg.. but I got there in the end without too much wastage.

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Next job was to set up the timer ; I didnt realise when I ordered it that it has a small solar panel in the top which it will use to recharge the batteries (if you use rechargable ones) ; a nice idea. Lots of options to fiddle with, Ive just set it to come on for an hour twice a day at the moment.

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Then I needed to deploy the drip hose around the plants - I expect that I will rearrange this when I have a better idea of how much water gets released & where its needed to be, but for now its just looped around where I think things will grow.

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Then all thats left is to connect it all up & switch it on..

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Its been on for about an hour now & looks like everything is working as it should - time will tell how effective it is, I expect that it will be dependant on the amount of water in the butts (the two end ones are linked via a syphon so there should be quite a bit of head pressure) but so far its looking good. If I can get to the stage that Im refilling them once a week & doing half the manual watering that I was I will be happy.

I think that some sort of support for the timer might be needed as its just hanging off the tap.. sounds like a job for cable ties & gaffa tape.