Watering a garden or greenhouse by hand is a long, tedious task. You have to pull hoses, then let the water run long enough to reach the roots but not too long or water will be running everywhere. If you miss watering for a day, your plants may collapse in the heat.

Hand watering is a chore but there is an elegant solution - drip irrigation. Drip irrigation is a system of tubing and valves, called drippers, that carries water to each plant. The flow of water is so drip-drip-drip slow that it goes straight to the roots where it does the most good.

One of the best uses of drip irrigation is in the backyard greenhouse. Plants in a greenhouse are totally dependent on you, the gardener. No rain will ever help them and if the plants are not watered regularly and exactly, they will succumb to the intense sun and heat of being in a closed space with no cooling breeze.

Setting up drip irrigation tubing in a greenhouse is easy. Add a battery-powered timer to the system and all your greenhouse watering can be done automatically every day, even when you are away on holidays.