I'm thinking of fitting semi-permanent pipework in our greenhouses
(and maybe some other places) with a time switched pump to provide
irrigation. The pump will use rainwater collected from the roof in a
tank which will be topped up by mains water with a simple ball valve
controlling that. (it may need to be slightly clever so that the
mains only gets turned on when the tank is, say, only a quarter full).

An additional reason for using a pump is that our mains water pressure
is very high and tends to destroy things which then gets expensive in
lost water. A system as above will at least limit the rate of loss
considerably.

So, in the greehouses I was thinking of running plastic around the
edges and having some sort of small bore feeds to individual plants,
pots, etc. Can anyone suggest a practical way to connect small bore
feeds to plastic pipe? I know there are systems sold for doing this
but my experience with them has been that they're not very robust or
long lasting.

--
Chris Green