Do you remember how hot and dry it was in Coastal Georgia last summer? How about all the years before that?

Odds are this year’s scorching heat Will live up to summers past. This means your landscape and foundation plants, flowering shrubs, fruit trees and other plants will need supplemental watering to make it through the summer this year. Don’t let the deluge of rain we’ve had catch you off guard.

Before you resign yourself to spending a lot of time and energy watering with a garden hose, you might want to consider installing a drip irrigation system. Drip irrigation not only makes it easier to water your plants, but this method utilizes water more efficiently. The biggest advantage of using drip irrigation is that it directs a precise amount of water to the place where it is needed most - the plant’s root system - while at the same time it reduces water loss through evaporation and runoff. By contrast, if you hand water plants with a garden hose, you can actually hurt them.

For instance, if you water your plants often and for just a few minutes, you are encouraging the roots to grow only into the top several inches of soil, which in fact makes your plants less drought-tolerant. On the other hand, if you overwater, you may encourage the development of root rot diseases that could kill your plants. Speaking of diseases, watering plants and lawns over the top during the evening can result in “putting the plant to bed wet” which encourages pathogen issues on the foliage of both vegetables and shrubs.

The primary reason that gardeners are hesitant to install a drip irrigation system is cost - they simply think it will cost too much. Although a drip system might look expensive at first, if considered over the long haul, installing and utilizing drip irrigation will cost much less than you think.

If you install it yourself, a drip system that will irrigate all the shrubs and small trees around an average yard would typically cost about $200 or less.

For that amount of money and not a lot of work, you can simply turn a valve on that 100-degree day this summer and walk back inside where it’s cool and relax while your plants are being efficiently watered.

Better yet, you can invest about $100 more and make your system fully automatic. Another huge advantage of using a drip irrigation system is that it uses up to 50% less water than other sprinkler systems. There are some limitations to using a drip irrigation system, however. Drip systems work well for watering shrubs, trees, annuals and perennial flower beds and even home vegetable gardens, but if you intend to water your lawn, a sprinkler system is still your best choice.

A simple drip system can be installed in a single afternoon by the typical homeowner. Most components of the system are plastic and require few tools. The most widely- used type of drip irrigation uses individual drippers, or emitters, that are attached to half-inch-diameter black tubing. The emitters are pre-calibrated for a particular output -usually one-half, one or two gallons per hour. The other components needed are a valve, filter (with a 200-mesh nylon screen), pressure regulator and fittings to connect everything together.

You can purchase drip irrigation kits from most garden or home improvement centers , or you can buy individual components from most irrigation retailers. Once the controls are installed, just lay out the tubing around the plants that you need to water and put the emitters where they are needed. A simple guide is to place a one-gallon emitter by each plant that is 2 to 4 feet high, two one-gallon emitters by each plant that is 4 to 6 feet high and four one-gallon emitters (or two two-gallon emitters) by each plant that is eight feet high.

Emitters are easy to install - simply punch a hole in the tubing with a special punch and snap the emitter into place. In beds, with mulch, hide the tubing under the mulch material. In cases where the tubing must cross turf areas to get from one bed to another, simply bury the tubing a few inches deep in the soil under the grass.

Now comes the fun (and easy) part; all you have to do is turn the system on for three or for hours twice a week during hot, dry weather and sit back and relax knowing that all your landscape plants are well-watered and happy.

For more information on this subject or related subjects and drought-tolerant plants, call or visit the Bryan County Extension Service. Our telephone number is 912-653-2231

tel:912653-2231