Planning Your Garden

Calculating the Water Flow Available

Start by calculating how much water flow you have available (and in turn how many drippers and sprayers you can operate at one time). To do this, simply run water from your faucet into a 5-gallon pail and time how long it takes to fill it. If it fills in one minute you know you have a flow of 5 gallons per minute (or 300 gallons per hour); if it takes 2 minutes, it’s 2 1/2 gallons per minute flow (150 gallons per hour), etc.

Remember that if water is being used elsewhere in the house (a shower or dishwasher, for example), it will significantly affect the flow to your irrigation lines.

Planing and Zoning Your Garden

Now that you know how much water flow is available, you can plan the number of emitters to run on each line. Ideally you will be able to water all your plants at once. However, that isn’t always the case. If your planned usage is greater than the available water flow, you will need to break your system into separate lines to run at different times.

Planning on Paper
Planning on paper allows you to plan the installation before buying any parts. This lets you make one purchase (instead of having to come back for more parts) and prevents over-buying of any items.

1. Measure and sketch out your gardens and determine which plants or which areas you want to water.


2. Sketch in the plants or areas that you want to water. Choose the emitters you would like to use to water these plants (keeping in mind that different plants may have different water requirements) and mark them in position on your plan.


3. Add up the outputs of all the emitters on your plan. Do they add up to more than the available water flow from your faucet?


4. Referring to your sketch, choose the header hose (main line) for each zone.


5. Add any feeder lines to the drawing. These are 1/4Й tubes that come off the header hose and are needed to run certain emitters.


6. If your water pressure is much over 30 psi (or if you don’t know what the pressure is) you should install a pressure regulator.

Laying Out the Main Header Line for Each Zone

Once all your planning on paper is done and the pieces are purchased, lay out the header hose for each zone in your garden.

Attaching the Drippers (Emitters)

When the main header hose is installed you are ready to attach the drippers, sprayers and sprinklers. Depending on the emitter you choose, you will either attach it directly to the header hose or to a 1/4" feeder line coming from the header hose.

Testing the System and Making Adjustments

Finally, test your system to make sure everything is working as planned. Zone by zone, turn the water on and walk down the line, examining each emitter.