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Drip Irrigation for Flower Beds & Containers | Plan Review

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4.9K views 1 reply 2 participants last post by  TSGarp007  
#1 ·
Hello. We have recently completely nuked the landscape areas around our home (we moved in 18 months ago) and with so many new plants, I have quickly realized that watering them all, in addition to dragging lawn sprinklers, is simply untenable with two active young children.

So, I'm seeking to install a simple, spigot-based drip irrigation system utilizing an automatic timer. Here's what I'm thinking:

  1. 1/2" black poly distribution tube along the house (emitters installed as needed at large perennials)
  2. 1/2" brown drip tube with emitters every 18" at 1 Gph laid out in a grid pattern.
  3. Question: I can't decide if running drip tube through the ground cover (Liriope 'Big Blue') is better or if I should instead go with a few microsprayers on risers. Would appreciate thoughts on this.
  4. Will pop in 1/4" tubing at each container and run lines up to the soil and install emitters in the containers.
  5. Planning to keep lines 18" apart from one another.
  6. I have one area in the front of the house where I need to go under my front sidewalk. Any suggestions on how to best accomplish this? I figured I'd put a 1" i.d. pvc pipe under the sidewalk itself and then run the 1/2" black poly through it.
  7. All of these plants probably have different watering requirements, including the bloodgood tree. So, do I just not worry too much about it and have it set to water every day or do I need to consider adding a second "loop" for items that don't need watered as often, like the tree and some of the other perrennials (as opposed to the annuals and hydrangeas)?

Am I missing anything? Does what I am proposing seem reasonable?

Thanks in advance for your help.

- Chappy

P.S. The area "grayed out" in the image below is area we have yet to restore/plant.

 
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#2 ·
I think the choice of emitter spacing and flow rate is generally determined by soil type, is that how you came up with 18" spacing at 1 GPH?

I think technically you are correct, the annuals, perennials, shrubs, and trees could all have different watering requirements. This might come down to how much of a perfectionist you are and how much time/money you want to put into it. We all make compromises... If you only have one zone, then you'll be watering every day after planting annuals and your perennials won't need it that often, and in theory could promote root fungus but not sure how likely that is. And if you are only watering deep enough for flowers, then the shrubs won't get water all the way down to their roots. But a lot of times mother nature does that for you anyway with occasional deep rains. If you have a really dry spell for a couple weeks you could do a deep watering just for the shrubs/trees. I have that exact situation right now actually on one side of my house because I only had one zone available for the entire flower bed area and it has shrubs also. On the other side I was able to keep a spray zone for the shrubs but added a zone for flowers only.
 
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