A post about the automated stand alone watering system because it looks like a few people and plants around the world might benefit from such things.
The system uses a 12v battery to power the pump and a small solar panel to charge the pump during the daylight hours, with a small 12v timer with the same type of setting modes as normally used in our indoor gardens the amount of water per day can be easily controlled.
I used a diaphragm pump because of their ability to pump up hill with pressure to spare to properly run drippers.
A decent bilge pump for a boat or 12v aquarium or pond fountain pump if you can find one might work but only for a system with open hose ends and no drippers and also if there is not more than a couple of metres height to the garden from the water source this is because small pumps with impellers don’t produce much pressure.
For timing I found these little beauties on eBay.
https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com.au%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F143037829081
This type is programmed just like the 240V digital ones I use in my indoor garden so it was easy to set up.
I have mine on for 20 minutes every morning which delivers 1.25litres (around a third of a gallon) through each 4 litre per hour dripper.
The battery doesn’t need to be huge, I’d recommend somewhere around the 7 amp hour mark. The ones with the spade bit connectors are easy to work with.
https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com.au%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F133219445922
It only needs to be large enough to run the pump without much charging if you have a few cloudy days in a row,
which brings us to the battery charging solar panel.
A 10watt panel should be fine and also fits in a backpack easily.
If the battery isn’t charging back to full capacity (not everyone lives in a sunny country) it would be easy to just add another panel to add enough amps back into it every day.
One problem I found with my setup is that I used a charging controller that didn’t have low voltage protection for the battery and I stuffed the timer up once which completely discharged the battery and watered the plants for the whole day.
For the controller if I done it again I would use one of these;
https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com.au%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F323855995655
These solar charge controllers shut of the power when the battery is full and also will shut of the power to the pump or other load when the battery power is down to protect the battery.
The electrical wire I used was just some old speaker wire I had in my shed for years… something like this;
https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com.au%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F264100279307
Connect to the battery, pump and timer with spade connectors
https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com.au%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F123298350228
The only 2 tools you will need for the electrical side;
A small Phillips head screwdriver to tighten the connections on the charge controller and a wire stripper and crimp tool.
The plumbing;
In the creek I have a filter inside a plastic bottle that has a cloth type shopping bag tied over it. You’ve seen the end result earlier in the season in a post up there 
somewhere.
That’s connected via a couple metres of 13mm poly pipe to the inlet of the pump.
On the outlet of the pump I have a little peice of rubber hose that connects the pump and the main poly line with a barbed connector I added a clamp to this connection because there was alot of pressure while there were not many drippers on the line.
https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com.au%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F181952988197
At the top of the creek bank there is a pressure reducer to get the pressure in range for the drippers to function properly;
https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com.au%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F332545572831
And final part of the system is the drippers
https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com.au%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F192699342532
They can be connected straight into the poly pipe or onto 4mm hose with barbed connectors but either way this little tool will make installation easy.
Nope the final part would be to not forget an end plug for the poly.
Have a fantastic holiday leading to the new year.