Design and Installation Tips

You'll dig these design and installation tips.

Use separate valves for turf and plant areas. Group plants with similar water needs on the same valve. Accommodate different watering needs by using multiple valves. Ideally, trees should be on a separate valve from shrubs and groundcover.
Make sure a backflow preventer is installed to prevent irrigation water from backing up into your home drinking water supply.
Avoid oddly shaped or narrow turf areas (under 10 feet wide). These are difficult to water efficiently.
Install emitters around the dripline of the plant, which is the area under the outside of the plant canopy. Install enough emitters at the correct sizes to wet the root zone. At maturity, large trees may require 12 or more emitters. Small or newly planted trees may only need 3 - 5 emitters. Visit the Efficient Irrigation page in this Outdoor Water-Use Guide for more detail.
When installing a drip system, don't exceed 200 feet of poly tubing from valve to end cap. Don't exceed a total flow of 200 gallons per hour per valve.
Don't extend micro-tubing (spaghetti line) more than 6 feet.

You can learn more about the design of water-wise landscapes right here on the Water - Use It Wisely website.