How Can You Set Up A Garden Drip Irrigation System?

By Author: James Oliver
Total Articles: 19
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Irrigation systems for landscaping are frequently installed improperly or don’t even exist. This observation is from my years of remodeling the landscapes of the properties of a homeowner.

Repairing an improperly installed drip irrigation system is a quite common requirement for most landscape renovation projects. Here is how to set up a proper garden irrigation system.

Appropriate planting design

An irrigation system is a designed based on the design layout of the plants. Appropriate irrigation design is best when the planting design is done with the irrigation design in mind. Plantings are not only chosen for their form, structure and shape, but for the amount of sun they prefer. The concept of planting zones will dictate the way the irrigation system is set up.

Create Irrigation zones according to the plantings

Zones enable for the irrigation valves to deliver water at various frequency and durations. Therefore, irrigation fittings are dedicated to a specific zone. Instances of zones would be containers, food garden, native plant area, ...
... north shrubs, front shrubs, trees, rear lawn, front lawn etc Note that each of these zones need various amounts of water. Some need daily watering, while others only once a week.

Determine the location of Valve control box

Once you have the layout of the zones where the irrigation products will be installed, you then find out where the valves should be located. The control valves will require a water source, so where that point of connection is will impact the location of the control box. On latest homes, the mainline feeding the house might have a pressure reducer and a line going to the house exposed on the exterior of the house. Seldom, they will install a stub out fitting for connection to the irrigation valves.

Find the irrigation controller

The controller should have various available stations as you have valves. The controller might be located outdoors or indoors and in either case, connected to an electricity source. Control wire will run from the location of the controller to each of the valves, so it is not important to find these valves near to the controller.

Install the emitters and lateral lines

Once you set up the mainline connection, your controller and the valves, you may run your lateral lines that feed each of the zones. The emitter output should be consistent among all the emitters on every zone. This is decided at the time the plants are chosen and designed.

As you can see, an appropriate irrigation system has various components. It comes with a good irrigation design, good planting design, a programmable irrigation controller and right installation. The bottom line is a right garden drip irrigation system that commences with creating a planting design based on the zones. If the zones are created, the irrigation will match the requirements of the plants.