Child Item

How to connect irrigation system for hedging to existing lawn rectic system?

Hi lovely community!

We are wanting to create an irrigation system for the star jasmin plants we are planning to plant to cover our side fence and we were wondering whether it was possible to somehow connect this to the existing retic system we have for our lawn, which is connected to a timer tap. The area we want to cover is right next to the lawn area. If so, how do we do it? What materials do we need? We are very inexperienced in gardening but trying to make our backyard look the best we can!

Thanks in advance!

Find more posts tagged with

Tools and Materials

Gardening

Plumbing

Comments

AlanM52

Hi @lufrai,

So long as it's physically possible you should be able to run a irrigation poly line to the garden bed.

Please post some photos so we can provide more details.

Cheers

MitchellMc

You can absolutely run irrigation for your star jasmine off your existing lawn retic system @lufrai, and it’s a very common approach when the garden bed is right next to the lawn. Before doing anything though, the first thing to work out is whether your existing retic line is already running at or near full capacity.

If the lawn system is already using most of the available flow and pressure, adding another branch to water the jasmine can reduce performance to the lawn. In the worst case, pop-up sprinklers may not rise fully, their throw distance can be reduced, or you may end up with dry patches where the sprinklers can no longer reach. This can be difficult to calculate accurately unless you know the litres-per-minute requirements of each sprinkler and the total capacity of the line, which most people understandably do not.

A practical way to test this is to connect the new irrigation line and then run the system as normal. If the lawn sprinklers still pop up fully and cover the same areas as before, then the system can handle the extra demand and you are good to proceed. If you notice reduced pressure, poor coverage, or sprinklers failing to operate properly, that is your sign that the line is overloaded.

If that happens, the better solution is to run the jasmine irrigation as a separate line directly from the tap. This is usually done by fitting a dual tap timer so the lawn and the hedge can be watered independently. That way, both systems run at full pressure and you can also tailor the watering schedule properly. Lawns generally prefer shorter, more frequent watering, while star jasmine benefits from deeper, less frequent irrigation, especially once established.

If your existing system does have capacity, the physical setup is fairly straightforward. You would tee off the poly pipe feeding the nearest lawn sprinkler and run a new line along the fence for the jasmine. Because drip irrigation operates at much lower pressure than sprinklers, you will need to install a filter and a pressure regulator on the new branch. From there, you can run dripline with built-in emitters or use individual drippers placed near each plant.

Everything you need is available in the irrigation section, and the team can help match fittings to your pipe size. The first thing to do is locate the current irrigation pipe and check its size, so you know what type of fittings you need. You are asking exactly the right questions, and this is very achievable as a first irrigation project. Once you find the line and take a measure, post an image, and we can suggest the parts you'll need. Let me know if you need a hand uploading images.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Mitchell

Child Item