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As mentioned in the first blog on this topic, there was a problem watering the Vorgarten, where vines, kiwis and an acacia grow. Quite apart from the time involved, it also meant a very long hose and going outside onto the road, or else spraying the water from the terrace above. Either way, not convenient.

Fortunately we had a water tap installed on the wall at the time we had the old building (the structure (which was in situ when we bought the site in 2007) renovated in 2016. I bought another Cellfast timer and sprinklers, and installed a simple ring system. Worked very effectively. I extended it to the lower part of the Vorgarten after we had the front wall and the area below it vastly improved in early 2019 – up to then the area had been a bit of a wilderness.

After buying the hose in Kips, I managed to find small diameter tubing and droppers in Zozeta, in Igalo (the north side of Herceg Novi, on the road to the border crossing with Croatia). I also found a timer valve unit at Okov in Radanovici, on the main road from Tivat to Budva. The Cellfast timer (from Poland) allows one or two sessions of watering a day, of between 1 and 99 minutes at times one can set, so highly variable. It also allows a choice of which days of the week one wants the system to operate. That allowed me to install the first part of the system, on our top terrace, where all the plants are in pots.

Okov also stocks another brand of timer, made by Cleber of Italy. At about the same price, it is far less flexible in the selection of times. unlike the Cellfast model, one is restricted to 12 choices, from

I completed this in October 2018, shortly before we went to UK for a fairly lengthy period. Previously we would have had to get one of our team of ladies to come in regularly to water the plants. This installation saved all that. To our great relief, on our return some 10 weeks later, we found all the plants still alive! System worked.

The weather has been unusual this year (2018), with the summer heat arriving over a month early, May rather than July. The plants have had a difficult time, especially the main vine which suffered heat stress along its main branch where the leaves have withered. I have been trying to find a drop-by-drop watering system for some long time, and eventually bought, at a heavily discounted price, a length of hose at Kips, one of the main hardware stores/ builders merchants. Unfortunately Kips had run out of the little sprinklers and nozzles to fit into the hose to allow the water to be directed where it is needed (if they ever actually had them – perhaps that was the reason for the heavy discount on the hose!. Will take a month to arrive, assuming they actually do order the parts, by which time we will have consumed an awful lot of water in more traditional ways of distribution (hose and watering cans).