How to select suitable spray fittings for front yard garden beds

[TomG]

Hi all,

I'm looking to automate watering the garden beds in our front yard but am a little overwhelmed with exactly what spray fittings would best suit the kinds of plants/trees we have. My idea at the moment is to run 13mm polypipe for the main line from the tap along the outer edge of the beds (closest to the lawn) and 4mm poly to run the sprayers further into the beds if required.

Our garden is west facing and primarily made up of native Aussie plants and trees (thanks to the previous owner) with the beds all different sizes. I've attached a few photos as well as a diagram of the front yard created with the free online planner by Gardena.

One other thing I'll mention is that the LPM/flow rate from one of the taps is 35.3 (It took 17 secs to fill a 10L bucket with the tap full blast)

Once I've sorted the irrigation for the beds I'm going to turn my attention to running pop up sprinklers for the lawns so expect another post for that

Looking forward to getting your advice.

Thanks for reading,

Tom

 

[JacobZ]

Hi @TomG,

You might like to have a look at our guide on Installing Irrigation Sprayers And Drippers. It provides some guidance on the selection of fittings in step 1. You might also like to have a look at A guide to Micro Irrigation Fittings from our supplier K-Rain. There are some videos at the bottom that would also be worth watching.

Generally speaking, drippers are good for trees that have deep, established root systems, and sprayers are good for garden beds with things like shrubs and groundcovers where the roots will spread, and water needs to cover a wider area.

Using your 13mm line along the back of the beds, you can install sprayers like these K-Rain 4mm 180° Single Piece Jet on K-Rain 215mm Rigid Risers every 1.5 - 2m for the shrubs and groundcovers and then use 4mm irrigation lines with K-Rain 4mm Adjustable Drippers to service the trees.

It will also be worthwhile installing a Holman 13mm Pressure Reducer And Filter Assembly at the tap to ensure the lines do not get clogged and everything is working reliably.

Let me know what you think, and if you have further questions, please don't hesitate to ask.

Jacob