The spider drippers watering system in the Early Years garden bed has been damaged by students pulling off the caps, causing flooding, wasting water, and costly repairs. To address this, the authors plan to talk to classes about why not to damage the drippers, and plant native flowers to beautify the bed and discourage disruption. They chose this low-cost, easy solution over monitors which may not always prevent damage.

1. The Spider
Drippers
By Stef and Ruby

2. The Issue
The 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.

3. Our solution
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.
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!

4. 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.

5. Annotated Diagram

6. Annotated Diagram…
Close Ups

7. 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.
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec

8. Our speech for assembly
Stef: 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.