Creating A Gorgeous Garden

How To Install A Drip Irrigation System

27 February 2017 by Tiffany Gonzales

Your landscape requires a certain amount of water to flourish. Unfortunately, water is a resource that is in short supply in some parts of the country. Common watering systems like lawn sprinklers waste a lot of water through evaporation and misdirection. If you're interested in keep your landscape healthy while still managing your water supply in an eco-friendly way, consider installing a drip irrigation system.

How Drip Irrigation Works

Drip irrigation is different than common watering methods like sprinklers because the water avoids evaporation and misdirection. Instead, the water stays at ground level, where it is directed right to where it is needed most. In a drip irrigation system, the water flow is carefully managed from the time it leaves your house to the time it reaches the plant. This means that it never has a chance to evaporate in the air or flow anyplace other than where you want it. Water flows through a tube that looks like a garden hose, but is water permeable. Water drips slowly from the length of the tubing, and slowly adds moisture to the soil.

How to Install a Drip Irrigation System

The first step to installing a drip irrigation system for your landscape is to draw a map of the area that needs to be kept watered. This will allow you to measure how much tubing you'll need to cover the whole area.

Next, locate the outdoor faucet that will supply the water for the drip irrigation system. Since your first tube will connect to this faucet, this will be the starting point for the layout of your system.

Still working with the paper map, draw out the path of the tubing for the system. Be sure to allow for adequate tubing so that all of your planting line is covered. The efficiency of the drip irrigation system means there will be little to no runoff, so water won't spread like it does when ground puddles are allowed to form.

Now, you're ready to measure for how much tubing you'll need. Each roll of tubing will come in varying lengths, and these will connect to each other with included connectors.

Begin laying out the tubing from the faucet and along your planting line. Secure the tubing to the ground with garden u-stakes. Make sure all the connectors are tightened to avoid leaks.

When you get to the end of your planting line, use the end connector to block water from escaping from the last end of the tubing.

Installing a drip irrigation system is simple, but it does require lots of bending and a few hours in the hot sun. Instead of doing this job yourself, consider hiring a water management services company to install your landscape drip irrigation system.

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