Garden watering can become a nightmare if not done properly and this page is intended to help with design tips to make it easy. We recommend drip irrigation in garden areas for the following reasons.

• With drip, you can water exactly where you want and areas not requiring water can be left dry.
• Drip irrigation waters the plant at the root zone - exactly where it is required.
• This effectively cuts down on weed growth.
• Drip irrigation is not affected by wind.
• Large areas can be watered by drip at any one time. This cuts down on installation costs as well as component costs.
• Drip in gardens should not be buried under the soil level. Dripline under mulch is accessible and once exposed will not be subject to damage by garden implements.
• Because dripline can be hidden under mulch, there are no ugly protrusions from your garden to ruin its appearance.
• Dripline can work at lower pressures than spray.
• Microsprays in gardens tend to water the plants closest to them. Over time these plants will grow, effectively blocking out other plants behind. These plants will then get only a fraction of the water originally intended for them. This is where dripline has the greatest advantage over sprays.

Drip for different requirements

Where shrubs are planted 1 metre or more apart, we recommend using poly pipe with a 4 litre/hour dripper per plant. Some large shrubs may need 2 drippers.

For gardens with a mixture of plants that are relatively close together, we recommend using an integrated dripline with inbuilt drippers spaced every 40 cms, again with a flow rate of 4 litres/hour. These driplines should be in lines 40 cms apart, with 20cms to the nearest edge (path, fence). This sort of dripline will wet up all the area after an hour or so, although the soil surface will only show a small wetted area at the dripper. However, the whole of the soil profile will be wet at 50mm from the surface. This helps cut down on weed growth while at the same time providing water to shrubs etc.

For small flowers with shallow roots we recommend a small diameter (8mm) dripline with an inbuilt dripper every 15 cms. These drippers water at 2 litres/ hour and provide water to closely planted, shallow rooted flowers and annuals.

Filtration

For successful drip irrigation, good filtration is a pre requisite. Filters need to be fine with a mesh size of 120. This is equivalent to 0.13mm. Another important consideration is pressure. 20 psi should be the maximum pressure in driplines and this can be achieved by using a pressure regulator. This is placed at the valve and will minimise any chance of drippers blowing off or fittings coming apart.

The third, and equally important consideration is flushing. In time, tiny particles gather together which can cause blockages, so these need to be expelled. It is therefore important to flush out the line at the furthest point from the valve.

For details and prices of the above products, go to the Drip products page.

4 litre/hour dripper

8mm dia MiniScape Dripline