Garden Query

[speckledhen]

To some of you this may seem a daft question but here goes; I have just moved into a much older house with a larger garden, and although I pottered in my other garden I am a bit clueless. Anyway I have discovered a squashy black pipe (presume its a water pipe) underground (going along the path) from one end of the garden to the other - it comes out under the trees, quite a way. The start of it is not near enough to the house to plug into an outside tap, and has a silver nozzle type thing on it. Before it gets dug up, any ideas of how it could be useful - to a just beginning gardener.

Plus there is a large brick coal bunker, other than turning it into a raised bed herb garden, or a brick barbeque - any ideas of what to do with it?
Many thanks

 

[sublime]

Just check - and double check - it's not a gas pipe or electrical cable before you do anything else!!

Otherwise, it may be an irrigation pipe - in which case, you've struck lucky. These were very popular a few years ago before we spent our summers being flooded out.
They are lengths of piping which are laid underground and meant to have a hosepipe attached to drip water in, as and when needed. [This might be the silver nozzle?] The water seeps through small holes along the length of the irrigation pipe, watering a whole flower bed at a time.

They're an absolute pig to install, because you have to dig a perfectly flat and level trench to lay the piping along, but if it's already in place, I'd use it and thank my lucky stars!

As for the bunker, well, three more ideas - don't know if they're feasible but here goes;
Is it large enough to turn into a storage shed for a lawnmower, plant pots, etc?
When we were house hunting, we viewed a house where they'd 'extended' their coal bunker and turned it into a Wendy House for their kids to play in, it was a really nice feature.
If there's a solid floor to the bunker you might want to demolish it and use the base for a pagoda, or summer house, or something similar?

Meanwhile, glad to know you're on the mend, and hope you're very, very happy in your new home.

 

[speckledhen]

Thanks so much, I had my neighbour check and he thinks it is definitely a water pipe (he thought it may have been for a water feature), but I will be getting someone else to check it. I wondered about the difficulty in people laying these, because when I googled about digging it out, all I found were people who wanted to put one in! Quite excited about it now...(I'm easily pleased).

One more daft question, how do I attach it to the outside tap (about 5 foot gap), is there a hosepipe attachment which will allow me to attach one end to the tap and the other to the silver hosie nozzle bit.

Love the coal bunker ideas and there is a solid floor so that is another option. Thanks so much for your good wishes too.

Hen xx

 

[sublime]

Yep, you'll need a length of ordinary hosepipe leading from the outside tap to connect to the silver nozzle thingy.
You might like to take the measurements, photograph the nozzle on your phone and ask at a garden centre or hardware store??
Hosepipes come in standard widths so it should be easy enough to find the bits you need.

Incidentally, I remembered when these irrigating hosepipes became popular. It was when we had hosepipe bans and people could sneakily water their gardens without the neighbours spotting and reporting them!

 

[Akimbo]

Hose to hose connectors are readily available at garden centres, hardware stores etc. I know this because our rabbit, Nigel regularly bites holes in our hose pipe if it isn't coiled on its hook out of reach! Maybe I could leave it for him to bite at regular intervals to create an irrigation system!

Enjoy your new house and garden! I'd make minimal changes for the first year, then you'll see what comes up each season

 

[Pinkpussycat]

Sorry Speckledhen nothing sensible to add, I just wanted to say Nigel is a beautiful bunny!! :heart:

 

[Loveinamist]

Oooohhhh! Ditto, he is gorgeous. Sorry SH!