Setting up dripper irrigation, a beginner's guide

Let's have a chat about your garden. Watering by hand can sound romantic, early mornings with a coffee in one hand and the hose in the other, but let's be honest about how often that actually happens. Between work and everything else, the hose ends up being a job you feel guilty about rather than a pleasure. Dripper irrigation is the fix, and it is a lot less complicated than people expect.

What dripper irrigation actually is

It is a slow, steady drink of water delivered straight to the roots instead of sprayed over the whole bed. Because the water goes where the plant needs it and nowhere else, you waste far less of it, and you are not watering the gaps between plants where the weeds are waiting for a free feed.

What you will need to begin

• Drippers. Small emitters or adjustable ones, depending on how thirsty the plants are.
• Poly tubing. The backbone of the system. This is what carries the water to the drippers.
• Connectors. The bits that join it all together.
• A tap timer, if you want one. Optional, and the thing most people wish they had bought first.
• Stakes. To hold the tube down so it stays where you put it.
• A filter. Keeps dirt and grit out of the emitters, which is what blocks them.

We keep the lot in store, so come in and we will help you work out what you need.

How to set it up

Step 1. Plan the layout

Grab a pencil and map out where the plants are, how many drippers you will need, and how long the tubing has to run. Group plants with similar water needs together, because that is what lets one run time suit everything on the line.

Step 2. Measure and cut

Once the layout is sorted, cut the poly tubing to length. Sharp scissors will do it, and a pipe cutter does it neater.

Step 3. Hook it up

Attach the tubing to the tap with an adaptor, connect the emitters with your connectors, and put the filter in at the start of the system rather than partway along.

Step 4. Stake it down

Pin the tubing to the soil so it does not wander off in the wind, and sit the drippers close to the base of each plant.

Step 5. Test it

Turn it on and watch it. The drippers should be dripping rather than streaming, and the water should be landing where you meant it to. Adjust anything that is not, and you are done.

A few things worth knowing

• Keep it clean. Check the drippers for blockages now and then, because a blocked emitter looks exactly like a healthy one until the plant behind it starts to sulk.
• Watch your run times. Overwatering causes root rot, so start short and let the soil tell you when to add more.
• Expand when you need to. New plants just mean a few more adaptors and a few more drippers on the same line.

Why bother switching

Your plants get exactly what they need instead of whatever the hose happened to deliver that morning, and you stop losing water to evaporation and to the paths. The part people notice most is not the water bill though, it is that the garden stops depending on whether you remembered.

Shop related products

• Pope Drip Eze Dripline 13mm x 30m. Inline drippers already spaced along the tube, which saves you fitting each one.
• Pope Hold Down Stakes, 10 pack. For step four, so the line stays where you put it.
• Pope Simple Set Tap Timer. The optional bit that makes the whole thing automatic.
• Pope 12mm Brass Tap Adaptor 20BSP. Connects the system to the tap.

Did you know we also keep drippers, connectors, filters and poly tube fittings in store that do not all make it onto the website. Give us a ring on (08) 8536 4333 to check what is on the shelf.

The rest of it sits in the garden centre, and if you would rather bring in a rough sketch of your beds than guess at lengths, do that. It is a much faster conversation.

Keep reading

• 5 easy to grow tomato varieties for beginners
• What is the cardboard weed barrier method
• What organic products can I use to fertilise my lawn

Cheers,
Candeece

My first system had one dripper doing the work of four, and I blamed the plants for a whole season.