Desert gardeners are blessed with abundant sun and pretty good soil. The main thing we lack (at least part of the year) is water. Anybody who has grown even a few plants in the desert knows that wonderful feeling of watering a sad-looking plant and watching it come to life almost before your eyes.
The key to making your plants happy in the desert is water—consistent and thorough watering will turn a pathetic garden into a lush one. This does not need to be excessive. In fact, with the judicious use of native plants and drip irrigation, you can have a gorgeous garden.
Why drip irrigation? It’s the most efficient regular water delivery system we have. A properly set up system delivers water directly to the soil just above a plant’s root zone, and at a rate that allows the water to soak in quickly with minimal evaporation. This also avoids problems like runoff, which not only wastes water but can lead to weed infestation and erosion.
Keep in mind that drip irrigation won’t suddenly make a non-native plant garden successful. I always recommend using native plants in your garden, since they are best adapted to our unique climate. If you must use non-native plants, use drought-tolerant ones. If you’re growing no-native food plants, like vegetables, be prepared to baby them with shade cloth, frequent watering, critter protection, and the like.
With that out of the way, here are some tips regarding drip irrigation.
Drip irrigation systems need monitoring and maintenance
As with any product, there are some issues with drip irrigation systems that you should be aware of. For one thing, if you have an older system, you need to be aware that the polyethylene flexible tubing, while resistant to UV and various other environmental stressors, will crack after years of use. Depending on the conditions, you can expect it to last between 5-25 years. That’s a really wide margin, so you will need to monitor your system regularly for leaks—particularly in the hot months. I recommend flushing out your system at least twice a year, and testing it monthly to make sure you don’t have leaks. You can also look at your plants regularly (something I make sure to do nearly daily in the summer, and a couple of times a week at other times of the year) to see if anything looks stressed. Another telltale sign of a leak is sudden volunteer plants and weeds in an area adjacent to an irrigated plant.
Another common issue in our desert climate is that the emitters can easily get clogged, particularly due to our hard, mineralized water. Flushing a couple of times a year can help, and you can also change out the little emitters every couple of years. They’re very cheap, so this is pretty easy to do.
Maintenance and leak detection are much easier if the tubing is above ground, which brings us to the next topic.
Buried vs. surface irrigation lines
In general, your drip tubing will last longer if it’s buried a few inches underground. I don’t particularly like to do that, however, for several reasons. For one, it makes leak detection difficult at times. It also makes it hard to add circuits and smaller tubing if you have bought new plants—it’s much easier to just pop on a new tube if you don’t have to go digging for the main ½ inch circuit.
Many professionals also like to bury the flow emitters along with the tubing. I prefer to add the emitters to the ends of the ¼ inch tubing. Again, this means that if I change that plant, if the emitter clogs, or if the plant grows and needs more water, it’s easy to change the emitter.
Some negatives of leaving your tubing out are (of course) UV exposure and exposure to critters which may chew through your tubing. If you have a lot of problems with this, bury your tubing.
Another option is to use irrigation tubing with pre-existing built-in emitters (pictured above), so you don’t have to add the ¼ inch tubing and emitters yourself. This cuts way down on leaks and critter damage in my experience. This of course works best for areas that are fairly densely planted. You can join up this tubing to traditional no-emitter tubing if you have a fairly long run without plants.
You will need to take a look at your site conditions to see what makes sense for you. You can always cover surface irrigation tubing with mulch if you want the best of both worlds.
Should you DIY your irrigation system?
You will also need to decide whether you want a professionally installed irrigation system or if you prefer to DIY it. This chiefly depends on two things: budget and the current state of your garden.
If you have a few thousand dollars to spare, and you’re starting a garden from scratch, it may make sense to hire someone to install the drip system. The advantage is that you will have a nice control box, underground lines, and someone to do the maintenance (if you want). You also don’t need to plan out the system yourself and think about the components you will need.
Here are some reasons to DIY:
- You will be expanding your garden over time and want the flexibility to add future drip lines
- You don’t have the money to pay a professional
- You like doing stuff yourself
- You want to understand the drip system so you can troubleshoot it easily yourself
- You’re willing to do some research on how to design and place your system
- You have a pre-existing garden and don’t want to disturb your current plants
I’ve done it both ways, and I personally prefer to DIY my system. It’s quite easy, particularly if you’re not burying your lines, and you have the advantage of always knowing where your lines (and thus possible leaks) are. I’m not intimidated by leaks or problems, and I can fix stuff as it happens rather than waiting for someone to come. I can add plants as I want and not have to worry about scheduling someone to come out and extend the irrigation. I can also ensure that the lines aren’t trapped under hardscape like paths and patios (you’d be surprised how many professionals do this).
Regardless of whether you hire someone or DIY your drip system, make sure you have a drawing of where the irrigation lines are in your yard. You may think you’ll remember how you set things up, but a few years down the line, when the plants have tripled in size and the mulch is covering everything, trust me—you’ll be clueless. If you hire someone to install it, ask your installer for a drawing or diagram, so that in the future you know where everything is running. This will also be extremely helpful if you ever excavate in your garden, or sell your house.
