How to Set Up a Garden Irrigation System
Setting up a garden irrigation system takes a bit of planning and understanding of the climate where you live. Desert communities require a very different irrigation system than an area that is very humid. Other considerations are the purpose of your garden. A vegetable, flower, rock garden, container or ornamental garden all have different soil and irrigation requirements.
- Determine what climate zone you live in. The USDA website gardening center has helpful information regarding planting, seasonal information and irrigation.
- Walk your property taking notes about what are the wettest and driest areas, sunny and shady areas. This planning will optimize efficiency of water usage to where it is needed the most.
- Plan to place sprinklers adjacent to hard areas such as sidewalks, curbs and driveways.
- Place sprinklers near the edge of the property line to avoid overwatering into the neighbor's yard.
- Place sprinklers for border shrubs several feet in front rather behind to water them at the same time as the lawn. If sprinklers are in back of the shrubs, as the plant grows it will block the efficiency of the sprinklers, causing uneven watering.
- Determine whether you need square or triangular spacing by the open space measurement of your lawn.
- Typical triangular space measurement is .86 times head spacing. Sprinkler space is how far each head sprays.
- Divide that by the number of sprinkler heads needed from first to last.
- Each sprinkler should spray 15 feet, so you need 0.86 or 14 foot head spacing for adequate coverage.
- Triangular spacing is when the length and width require different head spacing creating a gap that is not covered.
- Using a triangular pattern allows for coverage in odd shaped yards.