PNLIT Drip irrigation plan

"April is the cruellest month" ... begins T.S. Eliot's classic poem. Indeed, didn't we feel it? The weather didn't change with the month and the heat continues to be relentless leading to lakes drying, shortage of water, heated roads, dripping sweat and body burning as if set on fire.        

Our added concern was the drying of the many shrubs and trees we've planted around the periphery of the lake and in our little garden. We decided to resolve this problem by implementing a drip irrigation system using a discarded plastic bottle and a stake cut from a coconut frond. We cut the bottom and pierced a tiny hole in the lid and tied it to a Pinwheel Jasmine (Tabernaemontana divaricata; Nandi Battalu in Kannada, Nandiyar in Tamil).

A couple of days of observing the trial encouraged us to replicate it to 45 more plants. Two children from South City, two from Mantri Elegance joined PNLIT volunteer Anjana in collecting plastic bottles discarded during the dry waste collection and prepared them for use. Early on Sunday morning (yesterday) we assembled and set to fixing the bottles to the stakes fixed to the ground near the shrubs by our gardener. 

In a couple of hours we were ready to test our drip irrigation bottles. Some were perfect and dripped water regularly but others leaked out of the holes that were just a little too big! Necessity is indeed the Mother of Invention and we adopted a couple of little strategies to regulate the flow to a steady drop.

An interesting fallout of this endeavour was that some regular walkers at the lake joined our team and also wanted to fix drip irrigation bottles to the shrubs and trees around the lake. We have decided do so. All visitors to the lake are welcome to bring along a bottle of water from home, empty it into our irrigation bottle and watch their favourite tree/shrub grow lush. 

Little drops of water make the ocean. One bottle of water a day will save a tree at Puttenahalli Lake. 

Usha