How to fix uneven watering in your garden

February 18, 2025

Find out where the water is actually going first

Before you buy anything, put half a dozen empty tins around the area, run the sprinkler for 15 minutes, and then look at how much is in each one. That's the whole diagnosis. People assume the dry patch is a soil problem when nine times out of ten the tin sitting in it has 5mm in it and the tin 2 metres away has 20mm, and once you can see that, the fix is obvious and usually cheap.

It costs you 15 minutes and some empty tins, and it's the difference between fixing the actual fault and buying a whole new system that waters the same patch just as badly.

The four things that cause it

Sprinklers spaced too far apart. A sprinkler doesn't put out an even circle, it puts out most of the water close in and a fine bit at the edge, so the arcs have to overlap. The rule of thumb is that the spray from one head should be reaching the base of the next one. Set them out so the circles just touch and you get a dry ring between every pair.
Not enough pressure for the number of heads. Add one sprinkler too many to a line and the far end stops throwing and starts misting. If the last head on the run is the dry patch, that's your answer.
Soil that has gone water repellent. Sandy and potting-mix soils dry out and then stop wetting altogether, so the water sheets off and lands wherever the ground falls to. You'll see it as a puddle three metres downhill of where you were aiming.
Slope. Water leaves the top and collects at the bottom, and no amount of even sprinkling fixes that on its own.

The fixes, cheapest first

If it's coverage, move the heads or change the nozzle before you buy anything new. Most of the sprinkler bodies we sell take a different nozzle, and matching the throw to the space is free if you already own the sprinkler.

If it's repellent soil, a wetting agent does more in one application than a month of extra watering will, because it lets the water in instead of letting it run. Follow it with mulch so the surface stops baking and going repellent again, which is the part people skip and then wonder why it comes back.

If it's a garden bed rather than lawn, take the sprinkler out of it entirely and run a drip line. A 13mm Drip Eze line puts out 2 litres an hour at each dripper, straight into the root zone, and it doesn't care about the wind or about what's shading what. Peg it down, run it on a tap timer, and the bed gets the same drink every time whether you remembered or not.

If it's slope, edging across the fall slows the water down long enough to soak in, and putting the thirsty plants at the bottom and the tough ones at the top works with the water instead of fighting it.

Water in the morning

Early morning beats evening for the same reason it beats the middle of the day. You lose less to evaporation than at noon, and the foliage dries off during the day instead of sitting wet all night, which is how fungal problems get started.

Shop related products

Pope Drip Eze 2L/h 13mm x 30m. Drippers built into the line, so there's nothing to assemble.
Pope Hold Down Stake 10pk. Pegs the line where you put it instead of where it wants to curl back to.
Pope Simple Set Tap Timer. The one that takes the remembering out of it.
Easy Wetta Garden Mulch 50L. Mulch with the wetting agent already through it.
Martins Organic Sugar Cane Bale 11kg. Goes a long way over a veggie bed and breaks down into the soil.

Did you know we also stock soaker hose in 7.5m, 10m, 15m and 30m, a whole wall of sprinklers from pop-ups and impact heads to oscillators and micro sprinklers, tap timers from a 2 hour mechanical dial up to a 4 outlet digital one, Easy Wetta wetting crystals, and garden edging in plastic and galvanised steel. Most of that is not on the website, so give us a ring on (08) 8536 4333 to check what is on the shelf.

It's all in the garden centre, and the Pope range covers most of the irrigation side. Bring a photo of the bed and we'll work out what you need.

More from the garden

I own more sprinkler nozzles than any one person needs, and I still water the same two pots by hand because I don't trust anything I've plumbed myself.

Candeece

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