Drip irrigation — water at the root, not in the air

Group plants by water need before drawing anything

Drip is precise, which only helps if things with similar needs share a line. Thirsty annual vegetables, established shrubs and drought-tolerant natives all want different volumes and different frequencies.

Watch for: One drip line looped through a mixed bed. The precision is wasted — you end up running it for the thirstiest plant and drowning everything else, which is exactly the problem spray had.

Filter and pressure regulator at the head of the system

Drip emitters have very small orifices and they are ruined by grit, so a filter goes in first. They are also designed to operate at low pressure, far below household supply, so a regulator follows.

Watch for: A kit installed without a filter because the tap water "looks clean". This is the number one cause of a drip system that works beautifully for one season and clogs the next. It also applies to municipal supply, not just wells.

Choose the emitter approach

Inline emitter tubing has drippers built in at fixed spacing and suits rows, hedges and dense beds. Punch-in emitters on blank tubing suit scattered specimen plants and containers. Pressure-compensating emitters deliver the same flow regardless of position, which matters on slopes and long runs.

Watch for: Non-compensating emitters used on a slope. The plants at the bottom get far more water than the ones at the top, and the pattern is stable enough that people blame the plants.

Lay out the tubing and respect maximum run lengths

Mainline tubing runs to each bed; laterals run through it. Every emitter type has a maximum run length beyond which the far end loses pressure, and manufacturers publish these figures for their own products.

Watch for: A single line stretched around an entire garden. The last few metres will underwater permanently and it looks like a soil problem.

Secure, flush and then cap the ends

Tubing is pinned down with stakes so it stays where it was planned, then the whole system is flushed with the ends open to clear manufacturing debris before the end caps or flush valves go on.

Watch for: Skipping the flush. Plastic swarf from cutting and punching goes straight into the emitters, which is a self-inflicted version of the clogging problem the filter exists to prevent.

Cover with mulch and set a schedule that suits drip

A layer of mulch over the tubing protects it from sun and holds moisture. Drip schedules are longer and less frequent than spray schedules — the aim is a slow soak that reaches root depth, not a daily sprinkle.

Watch for: Drip run on the lawn's short daily schedule. A few minutes a day wets only the top of the soil and trains roots to stay shallow, which is the opposite of what drip is for.

Integrate with the existing controller, or keep it standalone

Drip can run off its own valve on an existing controller, or off a simple battery hose-end timer for a single bed. Where it shares a system, drip needs its own zone — never the same valve as spray heads.

Watch for: Drip teed into an existing spray zone. The two apply water at wildly different rates, so one of them is always wrong, and the drip usually gets the short run time.