Drip Irrigation
by Kelly Knight, Marketing Manager for The Good Table
Raised planters with drip irrigation (black tubes)
In the Garden
It’s been a pretty dry couple of weeks, and I was just thinking about turning on my drip irrigation again. If you don’t have drip irrigation installed yet, it’s a pretty straightforward thing to do and it has many benefits:
You save water — drip irrigation uses lots less water than sprinklers or watering with a hose. It also prevents evaporation. You can save 30-50% water using drip irrigation over conventional watering systems.
Much more focused watering — since drip irrigation aims water at the roots, your plants get a longer, more concentrated watering time. The water goes where it needs to go, without getting on leaves (risk of burning in the sun, or getting a fungal disease) or around the plant (more risk of weeds taking water, not your plant).
Very adaptable — more conventional systems are hard to move around. Drip irrigation can be moved easily and customized to whatever plant system you’ve got.
According to this guide from Green Thumb Nursery, there are a couple types of drip irrigation components:
Porous Soaker Hose: these are made from recycled car tires, and are great because all the water goes right into the soil. They’re especially suited to plant beds and rows of shrubs.
Raindrip Drip System: “The beauty of the Raindrip Drip System is that you just have to set it up and forget it. You simply attach the timer to the faucet, connect the supply line, lay it around your garden, and let the automated system do the rest. It distributes water more efficiently than traditional watering and saves water, time, and money. It is a great method to use to water your plants during a drought, and when there are watering restrictions.”
Micro-sprinklers: these can mist or be run to specific plants, and they use much less water than conventional sprinklers.
Main line hose (black), with drip hose (brown)
You can get drip irrigation systems at all major home improvement stores. My system is from Dripworks and I really recommend them — it was an easy setup and has been very straightforward to maintain over the years.
Happy dripping!