How to Plan a Low Flow Irrigation System

In the heat of the summer lawns and - particularly gardens need to be watered regularly to survive. However, watering can mean filling and carrying heavy watering cans or dragging hoses and sprinklers around your yard and then moving them (that is-when you remember). Neither of these alternatives are a lot of fun and they both waste a lot of water. Dumping a watering can full of water invariably means some runs off or evaporates before it soaks into the ground, and a sprinkler just throws water up into the air where the wind can catch it and carry it onto a driveway or sidewalk.

One way to eliminate all that work and wasted water is to install a low flow irrigation system that will put the proper amount of water directly onto your gardens, so you don't ever waste water, and your plants will stay green and healthy.

Here's how to plan your low flow water irrigation system.

Things You'll Need

• Five-gallon pail
• Watch or timer
• Graph paper
• Measuring tape
• A little time to learn about system components

Instructions

1. Calculate the water flow available from your water system. This sounds complicated, but in reality all you need to do is fill a five-gallon pail at your outside water tap and time how long it takes to fill. For example, if the pail fills in 2 minutes, you have 2 ½ gallons per minute (or 150 gallons per hour). Deduct a 10 percent "fudge factor" and that is the water flow your system can deliver to your low-flow irrigation system and the limiting factor on how you put it together.

2. Familiarize yourself with the various components of a low-flow system. Both the components themselves and information about what each does is available at most home stores, garden centers and online. You need to understand available spray patterns of "emitters" or sprayers (full circle spray, half circle spray, quarter circle), as well as how much water each uses (in gallons per minute or gallons per hour, very important).

3. Understand that low-flow systems also require header hoses (usually ½ inch or 5/8-inch plastic hoses), smaller feeder hoses (usually ¼ inch), as well as components such as filter washers, connectors to link hoses together and hole punches to allow proper positioning of emitters.

4. Measure the garden and plant areas you want to water and use graph paper to draw a scale layout.

5. Mark emitter locations and types of spray patterns on your layout--keeping in mind each plant's water needs as well as the location of driveways, sidewalks and roads.

6. Total the water requirements of all the emitters on your layout. If the total water requirement is less than your available water supply, your plan is feasible as it stands. If your layout calls for more water than is available, you will need to break your layout into two or even three separate configurations.

Tips & Warnings

• Planning and laying out a low-flow irrigation system can be an intimidating project at first. However, taking some time up front to understand each component and how the various pieces fit together will eliminate a lot of confusion.

• A low-flow irrigation system is convenient during the growing season; just don't forget you'll need to drain the system before freeze up.