Amazing places & green spaces thanks to irrigation

For this pair of Cantabrians what makes irrigation so special is its ability to help people better the growth in their part of the planet.

Simon and Vicki Ensor are the owners of Wai Design. To them the name represents not only wai – the Māori name for water and irrigation – but also the question “Why?”. Why is it important to have welldesigned irrigation systems?

Simon began Wai Design in 2018. However, his passion for irrigation and water use efficiency stems from his early days growing up in North Canterbury. After attending Lincoln University, where he completed a Bachelor in Commerce majoring in Agriculture Management and Engineering, he returned home to his family farm in 1980. Simon married Vicki in 1982, and later that year irrigation was developed on the property. In order to diversify and be more profitable, in 1986 the farm was subdivided and used for flower growing. They installed irrigation to the many small flower-growing businesses.

“I still recall the feeling of turning the water on … the relief of having a major factor under our control. Now it is much more precise with online weather prediction and control.”

This was the beginning of Simon’s passion for irrigation development. In 2004 he began working for Irrigation and Pumping Ohoka, building and servicing pivot irrigators. Three years later he transferred to Waterforce where he stayed for 12 years.

“Initially my role was quite varied, but an opportunity arose to move into a sales/design role for commercial and residential clients. During this time I watched the growth of commercial operators. The scale of their developments changed from a few houses to whole subdivisions and retirement villages.”

Simon made the decision to draw on his skills and begin his own business in 2018. At the beginning of the business Simon operated it by himself, but over the last 18 months his wife Vicki, two design engineers, and a part-time business manager have come on board.

Although Simon’s focus had been on good designs that meet

standards, he saw a gap for designing on a smaller scale on multistage projects. “Water is incredibly important in recreational spaces, retirement villages, subdivisions, and commercial developments. Good quality design means less water use and improved plant health. It’s important water isn’t undervalued in commercial situations.”

“We have developed a business that includes landscape architecture engineering and the irrigation industry all in one.”

Simon Ensor measuring application rates.

He said their focus was on sustainable irrigation design and plans that are not influenced by product sales. Provided services include auditing projects, creating GPS-assisted plans, performance assessments, and pond and water feature design.

Simon said they have had the opportunity to develop and implement irrigation design for a range of systems, and an ongoing challenge for them was improving design software. “It took three years of product development to achieve what we now do, and new development work is always ongoing”.

Simon’s “Why?” for what he does was a love of the outdoors and growing things. “I was there at The Russley Retirement Village when the trees and gardens were planted, which led to them winning a summer garden award. Now I continue to teach the staff how to monitor and manage their irrigation, so together we are making the planet a better place to live.”

He said their aim for the future was to continue developing their business and helping improve the standards for irrigation in commercial environments.

“On a building site, there are standards for electricity and windows, etc, however there aren’t any for irrigation. As our water use becomes more and more important I would like to see some more standards introduced for urban irrigation. Many projects are wasting 20–30 percent of the water they use. Across a city, this is just a waste when it goes down the drain.”

“There is an increasing awareness of the linkages between green space and wellness. There are so many people passionate about our water use and its future, so it is important to have young people developing our business for the future.”

Vicki Ensor surveying.

Water use efficiency is undoubtedly important when it comes to growing for agriculture, horticulture and more, but it is also very important in urban areas.