Gardening 101: Drip Irrigation

By Jeff Ray, CBS Dallas/Fort Worth

January 29, 2023

Most of this water comes from man-made lakes scattered about our area. With the projected increase of the DFW population to hit 12 million by 2060 (currently 7.8 million), we won't be able to add lakes. This area will have to learn to use less water. During the summer months, about half of the water usage in the DFW area goes to lawns and gardens. So that's a good place to start.

Last week's story was about shrinking the footprint of your turf (the goal is one-third of your yard). This week, the story is about the best way to water those expanded landscape beds. Use drip irrigation.

Drip irrigation is exactly what it says. You drip the water slowly into the root zone from ground level. You lay down drip hose (not soaker hose, my advice is to NOT buy those). This hard plastic tubing has little holes at on one-foot intervals (or 6", or 18", or 3ft: it comes in many forms) where the water slowly drips out when hooked up to a water source. You wind it around your plants or a new bed, spaced about a foot apart (if your drip spacing is 12"). The best practice is to do this before you put down a bed of mulch so you can cover the pipe up after it is laid down, making it both disappear and be twice as efficient. When you buy the tubing make sure to buy the stakes to hold the line in place.

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