It’s a luxury to have a yard that already has sprinklers and drip irrigation, but that’s not the case for most people with yards. This means that people spend a lot of time and wasted water on DIY systems involving hoses, timers, and those awful oscillating sprinklers. These overhead sprinklers are not accurate, so water is wasted and rains hard enough to spread viruses and mold in your yard as the water bounces off the ground and back onto your plants. Plus, they’re always in the way, with hoses winding their way across your lawn. Soaker hoses that come off your garden tap aren’t much better, they break within a few summers and leak endlessly. A better solution is to water via a true drip line at the root and place sprinklers only where you need them, specifically targeting the small areas they need to water. While it is certainly better to have a real drip or sprinkler system, there are several ways to create a semi-professional irrigation system yourself. With the same tools, you will get a much cleaner look in your garden.

The first thing you need to do is divide your garden into zones. Sketch out your entire garden and all of your beds and lawns – anything that needs to be watered. The grass is one zone, and maybe all of your garden beds are another. The zones can be based on area instead, so you simply divide your garden into four smaller areas. A zone gets watered all at once, so what you’re really thinking about is which areas need the same amount of water. You don’t want to overwater any one zone, because your hose connector has less pressure than the main water line (you can do a test on your hose connector to see how much pressure it has). Because you won’t be tapping directly into your water line, but instead using your hose connectors, the zones should relate to the location of the connector. Note all of the connectors on your sketch, and then look at how each zone relates to that hose connector. If you had to draw a line from the connector to that zone, where would it go? It’s okay if it’s just on the ground next to the house, but draw it out and try to get as short distances as possible because unlike professionally installed lines, you’ll see these above ground. Minimize how much line you use, how many turns it takes, and the intersection of lines. Now go outside and measure those lines and visualize every turn so you can translate that into fittings.

Although most people don’t know this, in most places even the drip lines or above ground oscillating sprinklers you use are required by city ordinances to have a check valve. This prevents the water from flowing back into the city water once it leaves the hose connector. These little devices are not difficult to install in-line; you simply attach them to the hose connector before the timers. You want to control each zone independently. Since we’re not using a professional watering timer, you’re using hose timers. There are a number of smart hose timers out there and after testing a few, the one I like best is Racchio, which still has occasional leak issues, but is better than other brands like Bhyve. I also continue to use non-smart timers like Orbit, which have the advantage of having multiple outlets so you can run multiple zones off of one timer. Otherwise, you’ll need a splitter that comes off the hose connector and then a smart timer on each outlet.

Now we are going to lay down the hose that will take the water from your hose to the zone, and for this we are going to use empty hose. This means that there are no holes in it, so it will not drip. This hose is usually golden brown, so it will disappear into the planting. It accepts 17mm fittings, so whether you need an elbow, tee or straight connection, they are easy to find. Run this hose from the hose all the way to the start of your zone and make any connections you need. A final fitting at the start of the hose allows you to connect the pipe to the timer. Repeat this for each zone. The aim is to get the hose out of the way by going around the garden. While this is not as good as a buried pipe like a professional install, the hose you use is much more reliable than a hose and is less noticeable.