5 signs your garden watering setup needs an upgrade

Most people don't upgrade their watering until something dies. These are the five things that show up first, and what each one is actually telling you, because they usually have different causes and the fixes are cheap.

1. Some of it is soggy and some of it is bone dry

Uneven watering is nearly always a pressure problem rather than a timing one. Every outlet you add to a line takes a share, so if you keep tapping into the same run the far end gets less and less, and a long run loses pressure along its length anyway.

The fix is zoning, which sounds more technical than it is. Split the garden into two or three sections and water them one after the other instead of all at once. You get full pressure to each, and a tap timer will do the switching if you want it automated.

2. Watering has become a nightly job

If you are out there with the hose every evening, two things are probably true. The obvious one is that it is eating an hour of your day. The less obvious one is that hand watering usually goes on too briefly, so it wets the top few centimetres and the roots stay up near the surface chasing it, which makes the plant less able to cope the moment you miss a day.

A tap timer is the single cheapest upgrade in the garden and it is not a smart system, it is a dial that screws onto the tap. Set it to run longer and less often, and the roots go down after the water.

3. The water bill

Overhead sprays lose a fair bit to evaporation and to any breeze, and on a hot afternoon a lot of what leaves the sprinkler never reaches the soil. Dripline puts it on the ground at the root zone instead, so almost all of it goes where you wanted it.

Two habits matter as much as the hardware. Water early in the morning rather than the middle of the day, because it is cooler and stiller. And water in the morning rather than at night where you can, because foliage that stays wet all night is how fungal problems get started.

4. The garden grew and the system didn't

Beds and lawn want completely different things, and running a vegetable bed off the lawn sprinklers is the commonest version of this. Lawn wants an even overhead soak across the whole area. A bed wants water at the base of each plant and nowhere in between, which also means you are not watering the weeds.

The other half of it is that as a shrub or a tree grows, its feeder roots move outward towards the drip line of the canopy. A dripper still sitting against the trunk where you put it three years ago is watering the wrong part of the plant.

5. Dead patches that are not your fault

Before you blame the plant, check the obvious mechanical things. A blocked emitter, a dripline that has been cut by a spade, a sprinkler that has been knocked out of line by the mower, or a run that has simply been extended past what the pressure will carry.

Dripline needs flushing occasionally, especially on bore or tank water. Pop the end cap off, let it run until it comes out clean, and put it back on. An inline filter on the tap end saves you doing it as often.

Two things worth knowing before you buy

Dripline is rated by how much each emitter puts out per hour, so a 2 litre per hour line over 30 metres is a known quantity and you can work out a run time rather than guessing. That is the whole advantage of it over a hose.

And run the dripline on top of the soil and put the mulch over it, not the other way around. Mulch under the line soaks the water up before it reaches the soil, and a line buried under soil blocks up far faster.

Shop related products

• Pope Drip Eze 2L/h 13mm x 30m. The standard dripline for garden beds, and the emitters are built into it.
• Pope Simple Set Single Tap Timer. Screws onto the tap, sets in a minute, and does most of what an expensive controller does.
• Pope Hold Down Stakes 10pk. Keeps the line where you laid it instead of creeping out from under the mulch.
• Pope Partner Sprinkler. For the lawn, where you do want it overhead and even.

The rest of the range is in Pope and the whole garden centre is here.

Did you know we also stock the fittings side of it in the shop, including Pope barbed tees, elbows and joiners in 13mm and 19mm, 13 and 19mm ratchet clamps, adjustable 360 drippers and inline filters. That is the part of an irrigation job you can never buy quite enough of and it isn't all on the website, so give us a ring on (08) 8536 4333 to check what is on the shelf, or bring the old fitting in and we will match it.

More from the garden

• How to stop fertiliser and water running off your lawn
• How much sun does a vegetable garden actually need?

Still learning, and I will happily stand in the aisle and draw your garden on the back of a receipt.

Cheers,
Candeece