Gardening 101: Drip Irrigation

NORTH TEXAS (CBSDFW.COM) “Most of this water comes from man-made lakes scattered across our territory. With DFW’s population projected to increase to 12 million by 2060 (currently 7.8 million), we won’t be able to add lakes. This area needs to learn to use less water. During the summer months, about half of the water consumption in the DFW area goes to lawns and gardens. So this is a good place to start.

Last week’s story was about how to shrink your territory. (goal is a third of your yard). This week we will talk about how best to water the expanded beds. Use drip irrigation.

Drip irrigation is exactly what it says. You slowly drip water into the root zone from ground level. You put in a drip hose (non-absorbent hose, my advice is NOT to buy them). This rigid plastic tube has small holes at one foot intervals (or 6 inches or 18 inches or 3 feet: it comes in many shapes) through which water slowly drains when connected to a water source. You wrap it around your plants or new bed, about a foot apart (if the drippers are 12 inches apart). It’s best to do this before you put down the mulch so you can cover the pipe afterwards. stowed, making it both disappearing and twice as effective. When you buy a pipe, be sure to buy pegs to hold the line in place.

A special hand tool is used to cut and prepare pipes for installation. It’s under $15 and you’ll go crazy if you don’t buy it. At the end of the handle, it has a small protrusion at one end where you stretch the hole to fit any connector.

You will need a special tool to attach it to an outdoor faucet. The easiest way to do this (and how I do it) is to build a series of closed loops around your yard (each looping around one of your landscaping areas), run a garden hose to it, and hook onto it. Screw on the water outlet:

1. check valve to keep landscape water (and the dirt it carries) from running back into your home’s plumbing.
2. AND timer (This is optional, but will likely pay off the first time you leave the water running all night.
3. AND reducer (you have to lower the water pressure for this system to work otherwise the higher pressure will ruin the line you just put in)
4. AND filter (To help reduce the worst thing [to your plants] about DFW water, it is hard)

Attach a hose to the end of this and drag it around each section. Most areas require only about 30-45 minutes of drip irrigation. I highly recommend using a water moisture gauge (you can get one at any home and garden store) to keep an eye on your watering needs.

And here is a little secret. All those irrigation stations in the Metroplex that are supplied by professional irrigation companies? You can enter any of them and get your own details. I’m lucky I have one even half a mile from my house. I found that the people who work there know the installation inside and out and can give a lot of advice.

I’m refurbishing all my beds. It may take two years, but what I save on water use will pay for the material. What’s more, plants do much better with the drip system as it stimulates deeper roots. And deeper roots mean healthier plants that can handle the Texas heat.

But it’s still a lot. Even half of 245 gallons a day is the equivalent of filling and emptying a regular bath about twice. By 2010, consumption per person is expected to rise to 258 gallons per day. Both figures are well above the state average, currently around 170 gallons per person per day. And in the summer, we use half that water on our lawns—and on driveways, and on sidewalks, and on all the neighbors that walk by.