And with the ongoing messages about the need for all of us to do out bit to conserve water ringing in my head, I set about investigating. 

Initially, I thought the timer was just a bit out of kilter, as the watering system only ever runs at night.

However when I finally thought enough was enough and turned the power off at the powerbox – the sprinklers kept on sprinkling!

It was all a bit spooky really.

Were these sprinklers thinking for themselves and planning to take over the world one lawn at a time?

Or had I just been influenced by too many sci-fi movies?

Our plumber friend said the only solution was to turn off the water to the whole property and start digging. So I did.

I actually did know what I was looking for; the solenoid, which is the control panel for that bank of sprinklers.

The thing is, the solenoid was hidden in some very solid soil, and with no map of the plumbing system, it could have been almost anywhere.

Even after more than its fair share of water, that ground was like rock two centimetres down, and my holes were fairly sad affairs.

Trying my best to lock into my water diviner wisdom, I totally failed, digging about 20 small divets where I sensed the solenoid might be… but wasn’t.

I filled them in as I went, optimistically telling myself that the next hole would be the one and that all this turning over of the soil was going to be fabulous for the health of the garden.

Kym wasn’t able to tackle the job immediately, so for about 24 hours, if we needed to wash the dishes, run a bath, flush a toilet or put a load of washing through, I had to turn the water on at the front of the property and sprinkle while I worked.

When Kym started searching, I found out what a real hole looked like. His holes were deep, long and very, very dirty.

Our dog Buster could only dream of digging a hole like those.

I helped out, but without big muscles like my husband, I decided to specialise in putting the lawn back together when the holes were no longer needed.

Although the lawn is all fixed now, we await our water bill with trepidation.