First we need to make a drawing of the property to be irrigated
with all the different planting areas and as accurate dimensions as possible.
Effectively this includes the length, width and height of the different planting areas.
It's also important to mark all other objects and features in the garden,
such as the house, garage, shed, paving, pond, stream and
possibly underground cables, pipes and debris.
You can see this on the sample drawing.

The next step will be an indication of the water take off point, i.e.
whether this will be from the drinking water supply, a deepwell or open water.

There are different ways of making a drawing of your property.
One is with a sheet of graph paper where you apply a scale
and make a drawing of the property to this scale.
A very commonly used scale for a garden of 1000 m2 is 1 : 200.
This means that one centimeter on the drawing refers to 2 meters in practice,
which will allow the drawing to fit on a sheet of A4-size paper.
Click here to find a sheet which you can print.

Another possibility is to make a drawing in a drawing application such as the windows programme 'paint'
or any other drawing application for which you should be able to save
the drawing preferably as a 'pdf' file.

It is possible to have your irrigation system functioning manually or automatic.
If automatic irrigation is required, a controller and low voltage electric valves
will form part of the system. It is therefore an idea to indicate the place where
you want your irrigation controller to be located.
Keep in mind that you should occasionally adjust its settings but most of the time it will operate
without you noticing it.
A garage or a shed will be a good place to have it installed.