The Spider DrippersBy Stef and Ruby

The IssueThe spider drippers are a watering system made of a long pipe in the centre and smaller pipes branching off at regular intervals. This watering system is located in the garden bed along the Osmond Terrace side of the Early Years grass area. The fact that these pipes use a drip system means they are usually quite sustainable however, lately early years students have been removing the caps from the pipes causing them to continually gush water in one specific place. This results in many issues including flooding the garden bed, wetting the foot path, spraying students and worst of all wasting lots of precious water. Replacing the caps costs a lot of money that frankly, the school doesn’t have. The solutions for this problem are not at an abundance but there are a few. Talking to students about the problem so they know why they shouldn’t pull off the caps and hopefully don’t is another. Planting flowers and other visually pleasing plants in the garden beds so children don’t want to ruin them could help but probably not solve it.

Our solutionThe solutions for this problem are not at an abundance but there are a few. Talking to students about the problem so they know why they shouldn’t pull off the caps and hopefully don’t is another. Planting flowers and other visually pleasing plants in the garden beds so children don’t want to ruin them could help but probably not solve it.

The solutions we have chosen are to talk to classes about why the spider drippers are important and why they shouldn’t damage or play with them. We also plan to plant Sturt desert pea seeds, native hibiscus plants and spell binder plants so as to make the garden bed more visually attractive which will hopefully dissuade children from ruining the garden. Choosing this plan of action is due to our belief that it will be more effective than our other options. For example, having monitors wouldn’t work as, if they weren’t watching the garden bed at a certain time a kid could damage the pipe and there wouldn’t be anyone stopping them. Another reason we chose this plan of action is because it is easier to put into action, all it involves is two minutes during assembly, a trip to Bunnings, a few minutes of gardening and voila! water problem over!

Annotated Diagram

Centre pipe

Pipes branching off

The caps that the children pull offWe plan to plant

native hibiscus, Sturt desert peas and spell binder plants around this garden bed.

Plants that need watering.

Annotated Diagram

Annotated Diagram…Close Ups

Due to Norwood’s varying rainfall these drippers are essential for the garden bed to thrive. Each year has a different amount of rainfall so it is impossible to predict whether to water the garden bed all year or only in particular months this is why it is extremely important for this watering system to work properly.This diagram shows the amount of rainfall in Norwood each month over the past five and a bit years.

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Our speech for assemblyStef: Good Morning, we are here to talk to you about the watering system in the garden bed along Osmond Terrace in the Early Years yard.Ruby: This system is very important as it is the only way the plants can get water in order to grow.Stef: Unfortunately some children are pulling the nozzles off the pipes. This stops the pipes from working and ruins the garden.Ruby: Please keep away from the pipes, this will help our school look nice as well as save water.Stef: We hope to get some new flowers planted in this garden bed but this can’t happen unless people leave the watering system alone.Ruby: Thankyou.